History of the Song Dynasty
Encyclopedia
The Song Dynasty
(Chinese
: 宋朝; pinyin
: Sòng cháo; 960–1279, some say 1276) of China was a ruling dynasty
that controlled China proper and southern China from the middle of the 10th century into the last quarter of the 13th century. The Song Dynasty is considered a high point of classical Chinese innovation in science and technology
, an era that featured prominent intellectual figures such as Shen Kuo
and Su Song
and the revolutionary use of gunpowder
weapons (catapult
-projected bomb
s, fire lance
s, flamethrower
s, and land mine
s). However, it was also a period of political and military turmoil, with opposing and often aggressive political factions formed at court, which impeded progress in many ways. The frontier management policies of the Chancellor Wang Anshi
exacerbated hostile conditions along the Chinese-Vietnam
ese border, sparking a border war with the Lý Dynasty
. Although this conflict was fought to a mutual draw, there was subsequently an enormous military defeat at the hands of invading Jurchens
from the north in 1127, forcing the remnants of the Song court to flee south from Kaifeng
and establish a new capital at Hangzhou
. It was there that new naval
strength was developed to combat the Jurchen's Jin Dynasty formed in the north. Although the Song Dynasty was able to defeat further Jurchen invasions, the Mongols led by Genghis Khan
, Ögedei Khan
, Möngke Khan
, and finally Kublai Khan
gradually conquered China, until the fall of the final Song Emperor in 1279.
was the last of the Five Dynasties that had controlled northern China after the fall of the Tang Dynasty
in 907. Zhao Kuangyin, later known as Emperor Taizu
(r. 960–976), usurped the throne from the Zhou with the support of military commanders in 960, initiating the Song Dynasty. Upon taking the throne, his first goal was the reunification of China after half a century of political division. This included the conquests of Nanping
, Wu-Yue, Southern Han
, Later Shu
, and Southern Tang
in the south as well as the Northern Han
and the Sixteen Prefectures
in the north. With capable military officers such as Yang Ye (d. 986), Liu Tingrang (929–987), Cao Bin (931–999) and Huyan Zan
(d. 1000), the early Song military became the dominant force in China. Innovative military tactics, such as defending supply lines across floating pontoon bridge
s led to success in battle such as the Song assault against the Southern Tang state while crossing the Yangzi River in 974. Using a mass of arrow fire from crossbowmen, Song forces were able to defeat the renowned war elephant
corps of the Southern Han
on January 23, 971, thus forcing the submission of Southern Han and terminating the first and last elephant corps that would make up a regular division within a Chinese army.
Consolidation in the south was completed in 978, with the conquest of Wu-Yue. Song military forces then turned north against the Northern Han, which fell to Song forces in 979. However, efforts to take the Sixteen Prefectures
were unsuccessful and they were incorporated into the Liao state based in Manchuria
to the immediate north instead. To the far northwest, the Tanguts had been in power over northern Shaanxi
since 881, after the earlier Tang court appointed a Tangut chief as a military governor (jiedushi
) over the region, a seat that became hereditary (forming the Xi-Xia Dynasty). Although the Song state was evenly matched against the Liao Dynasty, the Song gained significant military victories against the Western Xia (who would eventually fall to the Mongol conquest of Genghis Khan in 1227).
After political consolidation through military conquest, Emperor Taizu held a famous banquet inviting many of the high-ranking military officers that had served him in Song's various conquests. As his military officers drank wine and feasted with Taizu, he spoke to them about the potential of a military coup against him like those of Five Dynasties era. His military officers protested against this notion, and insisted that none were as qualified as him to lead the country. The passage of this account in the Song Shi follows as such:
Emperor Taizu developed an effective centralized bureaucracy
staffed with civilian scholar-officials and regional military governors and their supporters were replaced by centrally appointed officials. This system of civilian rule led to a greater concentration of power in the central government headed by the emperor than had been possible during the previous dynasties. In the early 11th century, there were some 30,000 men who took the prefectural exams per year (see imperial examination
), which steadily increased to roughly 80,000 by the end of the century, and to 400,000 exam takers during the 13th century. Although new municipal
governments were often established, the same number of prefectures and provinces were in existence as before the Song Dynasty came to power. Thus although more people were taking exams, roughly the same number were being accepted into the government as in previous periods, making the civil service exams very competitive amongst aspiring students and scholars.
Emperor Taizu also found other ways to consolidate and strengthen his power, including updated map-making (cartography
) so that his central administration could easily discern how to handle affairs in the provinces. In 971, he ordered Lu Duosun to update and 're-write all the Tu Jing [maps] in the world'; a daunting task for one individual. Nonetheless, he traveled throughout the provinces to collect illustrative gazetteer
s and as much data as possible. With the aid of Song Zhun, the massive work was completed in 1010, with some 1566 chapters. The later Song Shi historical text stated (Wade-Giles
spelling):
Taizu also displayed a strong interest in science and technology. He employed the Imperial Workshop to support such projects as Zhang Sixun
's hydraulic-powered armillary sphere
(for astronomical observation and time-keeping) that used liquid mercury
instead of water (because liquid mercury would not freeze during winter). Emperor Taizu was also quite open-minded in his affairs, especially with those perceived as foreigners: he appointed the Arab
Muslim
Ma Yize
(910–1005) as the chief astronomer of the Song court. For receiving envoys from the Korea
n kingdom of Goryeo
alone, the Song court had roughly 1,500 volumes written about the nuanced rules, regulations, and guidelines for their reception. The Song also sent envoys abroad, such as Wang Yande (939–1006) who was sent as an official envoy to the Uyghur-Turkic
city of Gaochang
in 981, then under Kara-Khanid
control.
Relations between the Song and Liao (led by the Khitans) were relatively peaceful in the first two decades after Song was founded, the disputed territories of the Northern Han
and the Sixteen Prefectures
notwithstanding. In 974, the two began exchanging embassies on New Years Day
. However, in 979 the Song moved against the Northern Han
, long under the protection of the Liao Dynasty
. The Song emperor succeeded in forcing the Northern Han to surrender, but when marching on the Liao Southern Capital (present-day Beijing
) in the Sixteen Prefectures, Song forces were defeated at the Battle of Gaoliang River
. This defeat was politically damaging to the prestige of Emperor Taizong of Song
(r. 976–997), so much so that his top military commanders orchestrated an aborted coup to replace him with his nephew Dezhao.
Relations between the Song and Liao remained tense and hostile: in 986 the Song sent three armies against the Liao in an effort to take advantage of an infant emperor and recapture the Sixteen Prefectures, but the Liao successfully repulsed all three armies. Following this, diplomatic relations were resumed. Relations between Song and Liao worsened in the 990s. From 993 to 1004, the Liao observed the Song as the latter built a 'Great Ditch' in northern Hebei
province from the Taihang Mountains
in the west all the way to the Bohai Sea
in the east. This was essentially a series of canals meant to block the advance of Liao cavalry far from the northern border line, although the Liao perceived this engineering project as a means for the Song to dispatch offensive forces more efficiently via new waterways. In 999 the Liao began annual attacks on Song positions, though with no breakthrough victories. The Liao were interested in capturing the Guannan region of northern Hebei, both because the Song general Zhou Shizong had taken it from them and because it contained strategic passes.
In 1004, Liao forces managed to march deep into Song territory, camping out in Shanyuan, about 100 kilometres (62.1 mi) north of the Song capital of Kaifeng
. However, their forces were greatly overextended and any possible escape route was in danger of being blocked by Song forces. Eventually, the completion of the 'Great Ditch' as an effective defensive blockade which slowed the advance of Liao cavalry forced the Liao to request a truce. Negotiations resulted in the Treaty of Shanyuan, signed in January 1005 (some sources cite 1004 due to the Chinese Lunar Calendar
), which fixed the borders of the Song and Liao as they were before the conflict. The Khitan rulers also wanted to intermarry with the Zhao family line of the Song, an offer that the Song refused in favor of a nominal and figurative imperial kinship. However, the treaty required the Song to make annual tribute
payments to the Liao and recognize Liao equality with the Song. The tribute consisted of 283 kg (100,000 oz) of silver along with 200,000 bolts of silk, increasing to 500,000 units by 1042. However, even with the increase in 1042, the Song Dynasty economy was not damaged by this enforced tribute. The bullion holding of the Liao Dynasty did not increase with the tribute either, since the Song exported many goods annually to the Liao Dynasty, dwarfing the amount of imported goods from Liao. Therefore much of the silver sent to Liao as tribute was used to pay for Song Chinese goods, and the silver wound up back into the hands of Chinese merchants and the Song government.
Until the Song Dynasty took advantage of a large rebellion within the Liao Kingdom in 1125, the Song had to conduct cordial relations with the Liao Dynasty. Skilled ambassadors were sent on missions to court the Liao Dynasty and maintain peace, such as the renowned horologist, engineer, and state minister Su Song
. The Song also prepared for armed conflict, increasing the overall size of the armed forces to a million soldiers by 1022. By that time, however, the military was consuming three-quarters of the tax revenues gathered by the state, compared to a mere 2 or 3 percent of state income that would be consumed by just providing the Liao with tribute. Due to these circumstances, intense political rivalries would later arise in the Song court over how to handle these issues.
The Song came into conflict with the Tanguts of the Western Xia
Dynasty as early as the 980s, when Song intended to retake the former Ordos prefectures
of the late Tang Dynasty
, then held by the Tanguts. After the Tangut leader Li Jiqian
died in 1004, the Tanguts under his successor Li Deming
(r. 1005–1032) had initially attacked the Song, but later sought peaceful relations which brought economic benefits until 1038.
After non-Chinese Song patrol leader Li Jipeng (aka Zhao Baozhong) raided Xia's territory and destroyed some fortified settlements in 1034, the Tanguts under Li Yuanhao (1003–1048) retaliated. On September 12, 1034 the Tanguts raided Qingzhou in Huanqing Circuit, but later Li Yuanhao released Song officers and soldiers he had captured; by January 29, 1035 relations were restored when Li Yuanhao sent tribute of fifty horses to the Song court and requested a copy of a Buddhist canon
in return, which he received. Although he retained some unique Tangut customs and had a Tangut script
created, Li's administration followed the traditional Chinese model of bureaus
. Li proclaimed himself the first imperial ruler of Western Xia, ruling as Emperor Jingzong
(r. 1038–1048), and on November 10, 1038 he sent an envoy to the Song capital in order to gain recognition for his new title as "Son of Blue Heaven
" and to cease paying tribute to Song to affirm his new status. The Xia began attacks on Song's borders which were repulsed by Song commander Lu Shouqin (fl.
1030–1050), and on January 9, 1039 the Song shut down its border markets and soon after a reward of 100,000 strings of coin was offered to anyone who could capture Emperor Jingzong. Although he won impressive victories in the initial phase of the war, Jingzong gained no additional territory for Western Xia by war's end in 1044, while both sides had lost tens of thousands of troops. Emperor Jingzong also conceded to the Song demand that he refer to himself as an inferior subject when addressing the Song, and that he accept Song ritualists to perform official ceremonies at his court. Throughout the war, the Song had maintained a number of fortified military outposts stretching some 480 km (298.3 mi) from the westernmost prefectures of Shaanxi
to Hedong
in what is now Shanxi
. Since the Song could not rely on water obstacle defenses in this region—like the Great Ditch of Hebei used against Liao—they instead garrisoned the wide expanse with a recorded 200 imperial battalions and 900 provincial and militia battalions by 1043.
Relations broke down once more in 1067 with the ascension of Emperor Shenzong of Song
, and in the 1070s the Song had considerable success in capturing Tangut territory. A mood of frontier adventurism permeated Shenzong's court, as well as a desire to reclaim territories he felt belonged to him as the rightful ruler of China; when a Song general led an unprovoked attack on a Western Xia border town, Shenzong appeared at the border to commend the general himself. To punish the Western Xia and damage their economy, Emperor Shenzong also shut down all commercial border markets along the Song-Western Xia border. The scientist and statesman Shen Kuo
(1031–1095) was sent to Yanzhou (now Yan'an
, Shaanxi province) in 1080 to stave off Tangut military invasion. He successfully defended his fortified position, yet the new Grand Councillor Cai Que held him responsible for the death of a rival Song military officer and the decimation of that officer's forces; as a result, Shen Kuo was ousted from office and the state abandoned the projected land that Shen was able to defend.
When Empress Dowager Gao died in 1093, Emperor Zhezong of Song
asserted himself at court by ousting the political conservatives led by Sima Guang
, reinstating Wang Anshi
's reforms, and halting all negotiations with the Tanguts of the Western Xia. This resulted in continued armed conflict between the Song Dynasty and the Western Xia. In 1099, the Northern Song launched a campaign into Xining
and Haidong (in modern Qinghai
province), occupying territory that was controlled by the Gusiluo regime since the 10th century. By 1116, Song managed to acquire all of its territory and incorporated it into prefectures; the area became the westernmost frontier against the Western Xia.
a series of Chinese dynasties
had controlled northern Vietnam
, until the independence of the Ngô Dynasty
(939–967). Early Song Dynasty armies had fought and lost to the Early Lê Dynasty (980–1009) of Vietnam
at the Battle of Bạch Đằng in 981. Subsequently the Vietnamese rebel Nùng Trí Cao
(1025–1053) attempted to establish his own frontier kingdom in 1042, 1048, and 1052, creating a disturbance on Song's southern border that prompted an invasion against Nùng Trí Cao's forces in the 1050s. This invasion resulted in the Song conquest of border regions inhabited by Tai peoples
and a border confrontation with the Lý Dynasty
(1010–1225) that lasted from 1075 to 1077. The Song court's interest in maximizing the economic benefits of these frontier zones came into conflict with the Lý Dynasty, whose goal was to consolidate their peripheral fiefdoms. In the aftermath, an agreement was negotiated by both sides that fixed the borders; the resulting line of demarcation "would largely remain in place through to the present day", according to James A. Anderson, Associate Professor in the History Department at the University of North Carolina
.
(1008–1061) crushed the border rebellion of Nùng Trí Cao in 1053. During the two decades of relative regional peace that followed, the Lý observed the threat of Song expansion, as more Han Chinese
settlers moved into areas which the Lý relied upon for the extraction of natural resources. Initially, a division of Di Qing's soldiers (originally from Shandong
) had settled the region, followed by a wave of Chinese settlers from north of the Yangzi River.
The Guangnan West Circuit Fiscal Commissioner, Wang Han (fl. 1043–1063), feared that Nùng Trí Cao's kinsmen Nùng Tông Đán intended to plunder the region after he crossed the Song border in 1057. Wang Han took a personal visit to Nùng Tông Đán's camp and spoke with Nùng Trí Cao's son, explaining that seeking "Interior Dependency" status would alienate them from the Lý court, but if they remained outside of China proper
they could safely act as loyal frontier militia. Wang Han then sent a memorial to Emperor Renzong's
(r. 1022–1063) court in 1060, advocating the policy agreed with the Nùng. The Song government rejected his proposal and made the Nùng communities (along with other ethnic groups) official dependents of Song imperial authority, and Nùng Tông Đán's request that the territories under his authority be incorporated into the Song Empire was granted in 1062. In 1059—six years before the Song court's New Policies under Chancellor Wang Anshi
(1021–1086) organized new self-sufficient militia
units throughout the empire and along the border with Đại Việt—the Lý Dynasty ruler Lý Thánh Tông
reorganized northern frontier administrative units and raised new militias. This bolstered his kingdom's strength in a time of conflict with Champa
(located in southern Vietnam).
In the spring of 1060, Giáp Đồng natives under the frontier prefectural leader Thàn Thiệu Thái—an imperial in-law to the Lý court through marriage alliance—raided the Song frontier for cattle and militia recruits. He succeeded in taking the Song military leader Yang Baocai hostage, and in autumn of 1060 Song troops were sent into the frontier to rescue the general but he was not found. The Song court appointed Yu Jing (余靖; 1000–1064) as a new military commissioner of the Guangnan region and charged him with the task of quelling the unrest caused by Thàn Thiệu Thái. Yu Jing also sent an agent to Champa to enlist Cham aid against the Song's enemies in Guangnan.
The Lý court discovered the Song's secret attempt to ally with Champa; while Lý sent a delegation to Yongzhou
to thank Song for putting down local rebellions and to negotiate terms of peace, they instructed their agents to gather intelligence on the alleged Champa alliance and the strength of Song's military presence in the Guangnan Western Circuit. Two Vietnamese envoys were permitted to offer tribute to the court of Renzong in Kaifeng, arriving on February 8, 1063 to deliver gifts, including nine tamed elephants
. On March 30, 1063, Emperor Renzong died and was succeeded by Emperor Yingzong
(r.1063–1067); Vietnamese envoys arrived in Kaifeng again to congratulate Yingzong on his ascension, and on April 7, 1063, Yingzong sent gifts such as calligraphy works by Renzong to Vietnamese King Lý Thánh Tông. On the day that the Vietnamese envoy Lý Kế Tiên prepared to depart from Kaifeng back to Đại Việt, news arrived that Thàn Thiệu Thái had raided Song's Guangnan West Circuit again. Although a plea from a Guangnan official urged Kaifeng to take action, Yingzong left defenses up to local Guangnan forces and labeled Thàn Thiệu Thái as "reckless and mad" in an effort to disassociate him from the Lý court.
The minor Song official Lu Shen, a prefect in Guizhou
, sent a message to Kaifeng in 1065 which reported that Nùng Tông Đán had apparently switched allegiance from Song to Lý, as well as united with the Quảng Nguyên chieftain Lưu Ký. When the now "mentally weak and distracted ruler" Yingzong—as Anderson describes him—received the report, he took no other action but to reassign Nùng Tông Đán with new honorific titles. The court took no action to resolve the problem, and Nùng Tông Đán later played a key role in the Song-Lý war of 1075–1077. The Song also gave official titles to other Vietnamese leaders despite their involvement in Nùng Trí Cao's rebellions and their pledged loyalty to Lưu Ký, the latter employed as a tribal official under King Lý Thánh Tông.
Yingzong died on January 8, 1067, and was replaced by Emperor Shenzong (r. 1067–1085), who like his father, heaped rewards on Vietnamese leaders but was more observant of the Vietnamese delegations. When Vietnamese envoys arrived in Kaifeng to congratulate Shenzong on his ascension, he sent lavish gifts to the Lý court, including a golden belt, silver ingots, 300 bolts of silk, two horses, a saddle inlaid with gold and silver plating, and on February 9, 1067 bestowed the Vietnamese ruler Lý Thánh Tông with the official title "King of the Southern Pacified Region" (Chinese
:南平王, pinyin
: nán píng wáng, Vietnamese
: Nam Bình Vương). Shenzong also countered Nùng Tông Đán's defection by recognizing his kinsman Nùng Trí Hội as the Nùng clan leader in 1069, giving him a title similar to Tông Đán's and command over Guihua prefecture (also known as Wuyang grotto settlement).
The Quảng Nguyên chieftain Lưu Ký launched an unexpected attack against Yongzhou in 1075, which was repelled by the Song's Vietnamese officer Nùng Trí Hội in charge of Guihua. Shenzong then sought to cement an alliance with the "Five Clans" of northern Guangnan by issuing an edict which would standardize their once irregular tribute missions to visit Kaifeng now every five years. Shenzong had officials sent from the capital to supervise militiamen in naval training exercises. Shenzong then ordered that all merchants were to cease trade with the subjects of Đại Việt, a further indication of heightened hostility that prompted the Lý court under Lý Nhân Tông
(r. 1072–1127) to prepare for war.
In the autumn of 1075, Nùng Tông Đán advanced into Song territory in Guangxi
while a naval fleet commanded by Lý Thường Kiệt captured Qinzhou and Lianzhou prefectures. Lý Thường Kiệt calmed the apprehensions of the local Chinese populace, claiming that he was simply apprehending a rebel who took refuge in China and that the local Song authorities had refused to cooperate in detaining him. In the early spring of 1076, Thường Kiệt and Nùng Tông Đán defeated the Song militia of Yongzhou, and during a battle at Kunlun Pass
, their forces beheaded the Governor-General of Guangnan West Circuit, Zhang Shoujie (d. 1076). After a forty-two day siege, Yongzhou was breached and razed to the ground. When Song forces attempted to challenge Lý's forces, the latter retreated, with their spoils of war and thousands of prisoners.
Lý Thường Kiệt had fought a war with the Cham in 1069, and in 1076 Song called on the Khmer Empire
and Champa to go to war again in 1076. At the same time, the Song commander Guo Kui (1022–1088) led the combined Song force of approximately 100,000 men against Lý. The Song quickly regained Quảng Nguyên prefecture and in the process captured the resistance leader Lưu Ký. By 1077, the Song had destroyed two other Vietnamese armies and marched towards their capital at Thăng Long (modern Hanoi
). Song forces halted at the Nhu Nguyệt River (in modern Bac Ninh Province), where Lý Thường Kiệt had defensive ramparts built on the southern banks. However, Song forces broke through his defense line and their cavalry advanced to within several kilometers of the capital city.
The Vietnamese counterattacked and pushed Song forces back across the river while their coastal defenses distracted the Song navy. Lý Thường Kiệt also launched an offensive, but lost two Lý princes in the fighting at Kháo Túc River. The tropical climate and rampant disease severely weakened Song's military forces while the Lý court feared the result of a prolonged war so close to the capital. As a result, Thường Kiệt made peace overtures to the Song; the Song commander Guo Kui agreed to withdraw his troops, but kept five disputed regions of Quảng Nguyên (renamed Shun'anzhou or Thuận Châu), Tư Lang Châu, Môn Châu, Tô Mậu Châu, and Quảng Lăng. These areas now comprise most of modern Vietnam's Cao Bang Province
and Lang Son Province
. In 1082, after a long period of mutual isolation, King Lý Nhân Tông of Đại Việt returned Yong, Qin, and Lian prefectures back to Song authorities, along with their prisoners of war, and in return Song relinquished its control of four prefectures and the county of Đại Việt, including the Nùng clan's home of Quảng Nguyên. Further negotiations took place from July 6 to August 8, 1084 and were held at Song's Yongping garrison in southern Guangnan, where Lý's Director of Military Personnel Lê Van Thình (fl. 1075–1096) convinced Song to fix the two countries' borders between Quảng Nguyên and Guihua prefectures.
After students passed the often difficult, bureaucratic, and heavily demanding Imperial Exams, as they became officials, they did not always see eye to eye with others that had passed the same examination. Even though they were fully-fledged graduates ready for government service, there was always the factor of competition with other officials. Promotion to a higher post, higher salary, additional honors, and selection for choice assignment responsibilities were often uncertain, as young new officials often needed higher-ranking officials to recommend them for service. Once an official would rise to the upper echelons of central administration based in the capital, they would often compete with others over influence of the emperor's official adoption of state policies. Officials with different opinions on how to approach administrative affairs often sought out other officials for support, leading to pacts of rivaling officials lining up political allies at court to sway the emperor against the faction they disagreed with.
Factional strife at court first became apparent during the 1040s, with a new state reform initiated by Fan Zhongyan
(989–1052). Fan was a capable military leader (with successful battles in his record against the Tanguts of Xi-Xia) but as a minister of state he was known as an idealist, once saying that a well-minded official should be one that was "first in worrying about the world's troubles and last in enjoying its pleasures". When Fan rose to the seat of chancellor
, there was a growing opposition to him within the older and more conservative crowd. They disliked his pushing for reforms for the recruitment system, higher pay for minor local officials to discourage against corruption, and wider sponsorship programs to ensure that officials were drafted more on the basis of their intellect and character. However, his Qingli Reforms
were cancelled within a year's time (with Fan replaced as chancellor), since many older officials halfway through their careers were not keen on making changes that could affect their comfortably set positions.
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After Fan Zhongyan, there was Chancellor Wang Anshi
(1021–1086). The new nineteen-year-old Emperor Shenzong
(r. 1067–1085) had an instant liking of Wang Anshi when he submitted a long memorial
to the throne that criticized the practices of state schools and the examination system itself. With Wang as his new chancellor, he quickly implemented Wang's New Policies, which evoked some heated reaction from the conservative base. Along with the Baojia system
of a community-based law enforcement, the New Policies included:
In addition, Wang Anshi had his own commentaries on Confucian classics
made into a standard and required reading for students hoping to pass the state examinations. This and other reforms of Wang's were too much for some officials to bear idly, as there were many administrative disagreements, along with many personal interests at stake. In any case, the rising conservative faction against the reformer Wang Anshi branded him as an inferior-intellect who was not up to par with their principles of governance (likewise, the reformers branded conservatives in the same labeled fashion). The conservatives criticized Wang's reforms as a means of curbing the influence of landholding families by diminishing their private wealth in favor of self-sufficient communal groups. The conservatives argued that the wealth of the landholding class should not be purposefully diminished by state programs, since the land holding class was the essential socio-economic group that produced China's scholar-officials, managers, merchants, and landlords.
Reminded of the earlier Fan Zhongyan, Wang was not about to allow ministers who opposed his reforms to have sway at court, and with his prowess (and perceived arrogance) was known as 'the bullheaded premier
'. He gathered to his side ministers who were loyal to his policies and cause, an elite social coalition known as the New Policies Group (新法, Xin Fa). He had many able and powerful supporters, such as the scientist and statesman Shen Kuo
. Ministers of state who were seen as obstructive to the implementation of Wang's reforms were not all dismissed from the capital to other places (since the emperor needed some critical feedback), but many were. A more extreme example would be "obstructionist" officials sent far to the south to administer regions that were largely tropical, keeping in mind that northern Chinese were often susceptible to malaria
found in the deep south of China. Even the celebrated poet and government official Su Shi
was persecuted in 1079 when he was arrested and forced into five weeks of interrogation. Finally, he confessed under guarded watch that he had slandered the emperor in his poems. One of them read:
This poem can be interpreted as criticizing the failure of the salt monopoly established by Wang Anshi, embodied in the persona of a hard-working old man who was cruelly denied his means to flavor his food, with the severity of the laws and the only salt available being charged at rates that were too expensive. After his confession, Su Shi was found guilty in court, and was summarily exiled to Hubei
Province. More than thirty of his associates were also given minor punishments for not reporting his slanderous poems to authorities before they were widely circulated to the educated public.
Emperor Shenzong died in 1085, an abrupt death since he was in his mid 30s. His successor Emperor Zhezong of Song
was only ten years old when he ascended to the throne, so his powerful grandmother served as regent
over him. She disliked Wang's reforms from the beginning, and sought to appoint more Conservative officials at court who would agree to oppose the Reformists. Her greatest political ally was Sima Guang
(1019–1086), who was made the next Chancellor. Undoing what Wang had implemented, Sima dismissed the New Policies, and forced the same treatment upon Reformers that Wang had earlier meted out to his opponents: dismissal to lower or frontier posts of governance, or even exile. However, there was still mounted opposition to Sima Guang, as many had favored some of the New Policies, including the substitution of tax instead of forced labor service to the state. Sure enough, when Emperor Zhezong's grandmother died in 1093, Zhezong was quick to sponsor the Reformists like his predecessor Shenzong had done. The Conservatives once more were ousted from political dominance at court. When Zhezong suddenly died in his twenties, his younger brother Emperor Huizong of Song (r. 1100–1125) succeeded him, and also supported the Reformers at court. Huizong banned the writing of Sima Guang and his lackeys while elevating Wang Anshi to near revered status, having a statue of Wang erected in a Confucian temple alongside a statue of Mencius
. To further this image of Wang as a great and honorable statesman, printed and painted pictures of him were circulated throughout the country. Yet this cycle of revenge and partisanship continued after Zhezong and Huizong, as Reformers and Conservatives continued their infighting. Huizong's successor, Emperor Gaozong of Song
, abolished once more the New Policies, and favored ministers of the Conservative faction at court.
Before the arrival of the Jurchens
the Song Dynasty was for centuries engaged in a stand-off against the Western Xia
and the Khitan
Liao Dynasty
. This balance was disrupted when the Song Dynasty developed a military alliance with the Jurchens for the purpose of annihilating the Liao Dynasty. This balance of power disrupted, the Jurchens then turned on the Song Dynasty, resulting in the fall of the Northern Song and the subsequent establishment of the Southern Song.
During the reign of Huizong, the Jurchen tribe to the north (once subordinates to the Liao), revolted against their Khitan masters. The Jurchen community already had a reputation of great economic clout in their own region of the Liao and Sungari rivers. They were positioned in an ideal location for horse raising, and were known to muster ten thousand horses a year to sell annually to the Khitans of the Liao Dynasty. They even had a martial history of being pirates, in the 1019 Toi invasion
of the Heian
Japanese islands in modern-day Iki Province
, Tsushima Province
, and Hakata Bay
. From the Jurchen Wanyan clan, a prominent leader Wanyan Aguda
(1068–1123) challenged Liao authority, establishing their own Jin Dynasty (or 'Golden Dynasty') in 1115. The Song government took notice of the political dissidence of the Jurchens in Liao's territory, as Council of State Tong Guan
(1054–1126) persuaded the emperor to ally with the Jurchens against the Liao . The two nations secretly forged the Alliance on the Sea
, so-named because it was negotiated by envoys who crossed the Bohai Sea
, and agreed to jointly invade the Liao, and if successful, divide up Liao territory with the Sixteen Prefectures given to the Song.
In 1121-23, Song forces fared badly against the Liao, but the Jin succeeded in driving the Liao to Central Asia. Through the campaign, the Jurchens discovered weaknesses about the Song military based in the north (as the Chinese for so long had been sending tribute to the Liao Dynasty instead of actually fighting them). Song forces had failed to make a joint attack in a siege with the Jurchens, who viewed the Song generals as incompetent. Banking on the possibility that the Song were weak enough to be destroyed, the Jurchens made a sudden and unprovoked attack against the Song Dynasty in the north. Soon enough, even the capital at Kaifeng was under siege by Jin forces, only staved off when an enormous bribe was handed over to them. There was also an effective use of Song Chinese war machines in the defense of Kaifeng in 1126, as it was recorded that 500 catapult
s hurling debris were used. During the siege of Taiyuan
, the Jin employed 30 catapults and over fifty carts protected by rawhide and sheets of iron plating so that Jin troops could be ferried to the walls safely to fill in Taiyuan city's defensive moat
. The eunuch general Tong Guan, who had initially urged for an alliance with the Jurchens, was blamed for causing the war. He was eventually executed by Emperor Qinzong of Song
(r. 1126–1127) after Huizong abdicated the throne to him.
However, the Jin returned soon after with enough siege machinery to scale Kaifeng's layer of walls defended by 48,000 Song troops. The Jin used siege tower
s taller than Kaifeng's walls in order to lob incendiary bombs into the city. The besieged city was captured by the Jurchens in less than two months. Three thousand members of the Emperor's court were taken as captives, including Huizong and many of his relatives, craftsmen, engineers, goldsmiths, silversmiths, blacksmiths, weavers and tailors, Daoist priests, and female entertainers to label some. The mechanical clock tower
designed by Su Song
and ereceted in 1094 was also disassembled and its components carted back north, along with many clock-making millwright
s and maintenance engineers that would cause a setback in technical advances for the Song court. According to the contemporary Xia Shaozeng, other war booty included 20,000 fire arrow
s that were handed over to the Jurchens upon taking the city.
After capturing Kaifeng, the Jurchens went on to conquer the rest of northern China
, while the Song Chinese court fled south. They took up temporary residence at Nanjing
, where a surviving prince was named Emperor Gaozong of Song
in 1127. Jin Dynasty forces halted at the Yangzi River, but staged continual raids south of the river until a later boundary was fixed at the Huai River
further north. With the border fixed at the Huai, the Song government would promote an immigration policy of repopulating and resettling territories north of the Yangzi River, since vast tracts of vacant land between the Yangzi and Huai were open for landless peasants found in Jiangsu
, Zhejiang
, Jiangxi
, and Fujian
provinces of the south.
(known then as Lin'an) to be the temporary settlement of the court, but it was not until 1132 that it was declared the new Song capital. Hangzhou and Nanjing were devastated by the Jin Dynasty raids; both cities were heavily repopulated with northern refugees who outnumbered the remaining original inhabitants. Hangzhou was chosen not only for its natural scenic beauty, but for the surrounding topographic barriers of lakes and muddy rice-fields that gave it defensive potential against northern armies comprising mostly cavalry. Yet it was viewed by the court as only a temporary capital while the Song emperors planned to retake Kaifeng. However, the rapid growth of the city from the 12th century to the 13th necessitated long term goals of residency. In 1133 the modest palatial residence of the imperial family was improved upon from a simple provincial lodging to one that at least accommodated strolls with new covered alleyways to deflect the rain. In 1148 the walls of the small palace compound were finally extended to the southeast, yet this was another marginal improvement.
The new triangular arrangement between the Southern Song, Jin, and Western Xia continued the age of division and conflict in China. The region of Huainan
(between the Yangzi and Huai
rivers) became a new borderland and battleground between Song and Jin from 1128 to 1141, displacing hundreds of thousands of families who had lived there for generations. The Southern Song deployed several military commanders, among them Yue Fei
and Han Shizhong
, to resist the Jin as well as recapture territory, which proved successful at times. Yue Fei in particular had been preparing to recapture Kaifeng
(or Bianjing as the city was known during the Song period), the former capital of the Song dynasty and the then southern capital of the Jin Dynasty, after a streak of uninterrupted military victories.
However, the possible defeat of the Jurchens threatened the power of the new emperor of the Southern Song, Gaozong
and his premier Qin Hui
. The reason for this was that Qinzong
, the last emperor of the Northern Song was living in Jin-imposed exile
in Manchuria
and had a good chance of being recalled to the throne should the Jin Dynasty be destroyed. Although Yue Fei had penetrated into enemy territory as far as Luoyang
, he was ordered to head back to the capital and halt his campaign. Emperor Gaozong signed the Treaty of Shaoxing
in 1141 that fixed the borders at the Huai River, as well as conceded territory regained through the efforts of Yue Fei, while Yue was killed during imprisonment. As part of the treaty, the Song were also forced to pay tribute to the Jin Dynasty, much how it did to the previous Liao Dynasty. With the treaty of Shaoxing, hostilities ceased between the Jin and Song dynasties for the next two decades. In the meantime, Emperor Gaozong negotiated with the Jin over his mother's ransom while he commissioned a symbolic art project about her, the Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute
, originally based upon the life of Cai Wenji
(b. 177). Gaozong's mother was eventually released and brought south, but Qinzong was never freed from his confinement in the north.
Decades after Yue's death, the later Emperor Xiaozong of Song
honored Yue Fei as a national hero in 1162, providing him proper burial and memorial of a shrine
. As a means to shame those who had pressed for his execution (Qin Hui and his wife), iron statues of them were crafted to kneel before the tomb of Yue Fei, located at the West Lake
in Hangzhou
.
As the once great Indian Ocean maritime power of the Chola Dynasty
in medieval India had waned and declined, Chinese sailors and seafarers began to increase their own maritime activity in South East Asia and into the Indian Ocean. Even during the earlier Northern Song period, when it was written in Tamil
inscriptions under the reign of Rajendra Chola I
that Srivijaya
had been completely taken in 1025 by Chola's naval strength, the succeeding king of Srivijaya managed to send tribute to the Chinese Northern Song court in 1028. Much later, in 1077, the Indian Chola ruler Kulothunga Chola I
(who the Chinese called Ti-hua-kia-lo) sent a trade embassy to the court of Emperor Shenzong of Song
, and made lucrative profits in selling goods to China. There were other tributary payers from other regions of the world as well. The Fatimid
-era Egyptian
sea captain Domiyat traveled to a Buddhist site of pilgrimage in Shandong
in 1008, where he presented the Chinese Emperor Zhenzong of Song
with gifts from his ruling Imam
Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah
, establishing diplomatic relations between Egypt and China that had been lost during the collapse of the Tang Dynasty
in 907 (while the Fatimid state was established three years later in 910). During the Northern Song Dynasty, Quanzhou
was already a bustling port of call visited by a plethora of different foreigers, from Muslim Arabs, Persians, Egyptians, Hindu
Indians, Middle-Eastern Jews
, Nestorian Christians from the Near East
, etc. Muslims
from foreign nations dominated the import and export industry (see Islam during the Song Dynasty
). To regulate this enormous commercial center, in 1087 the Northern Song government established an office in Quanzhou for the sole purpose of handling maritime affairs and commercial transactions. In this multicultural environment there were many opportunities for subjects in the empire of foreign descent, such as the (Arab or Persian) Muslim Pu Shougeng, the Commissioner of Merchant Shipping for Quanzhou between 1250 and 1275. Pu Shougeng had gained his reputable position by helping the Chinese destroy pirate forces that plagued the area, and so was lavished with gifts and appraisal from Chinese merchants and officials. Quanzhou soon rivaled Guangzhou
(the greatest maritime port of the earlier Tang Dynasty) as a major trading center during the late Northern Song. However, Guangzhou had not fully lost its importance. The medieval Arab maritime captain Abu Himyarite from Yemen
toured Guangzhou in 993, and was an avid visitor to China. There were other notable international seaports in China during the Song period as well, including Xiamen
(or Amoy).
When the Song capital was removed far south to Hangzhou
, massive numbers of people from the north. Unlike the flat plains of the north, the mountainous terrain riddled with lakes and rivers in southern China is largely a hindrance and inhospitable to widespread agriculture. Therefore, the Southern Song took on a unique maritime presence that was largely unseen in earlier dynasties, grown out of the need to secure importation of foreign resources. Commercial cities (located along the coast and by internal rivers), backed by patronage of the state, dramatically increased shipbuilding
activity (funding harbor
improvements, warehouse
construction, and navigation beacon
s). Navigation
at sea was made easier by the invention of the compass
and Shen Kuo
's treatise of the 11th century on the concept of true north
(with magnetic declination towards the North Pole
). With military defense and economic policy in mind, the Southern Song Dynasty established China's first standing navy
. China had a long naval history before that point (example, Battle of Chibi in 208), and even during the Northern Song era there were concerns with naval matters, as seen in examples such as the Chinese official Huang Huaixin of the Xining Reign (1068–1077) outlining a plan of employing a drydock for repair of 'imperial dragon boats' (see Technology section below). Already during the Northern Song Dynasty, the Chinese had established fortified trade bases in the Philippines
, a noted interest of the court to expand China's military power and economic influence abroad. Provincial armies in the Northern Song era also maintained naval river units. However, it was the Southern Song court that was the first to create a large, permanent standing naval institution for China in 1132. The new headquarters of the Southern Song Chinese admiral
ty was based at Dinghai, the office labeled as the Yanhai Zhizhi Shisi (Imperial Commissariat for the Control and Organization of Coastal Areas). Even as far back as 1129 officials proposed ambitious plans to conquer Korea with a new navy and use Korea as a base for launching invasions into Jin territory, but this scheme was never achieved and was of secondary importance to maintaining defense along the fluctuating border with Jin.
Capturing the essence of the day, the Song era writer Zhang Yi once wrote in 1131 that China must regard the Sea and the River as her Great Wall, and substitute warship
s for watchtowers. Indeed, the court administration at Hangzhou lived up to this ideal, and were successful for a time in employing their navy to defend their interests against an often hostile neighbor to the north. In his Science and Civilization in China series, Joseph Needham
writes:
During the reign of Emperor Xiaozong of Song
, the Chinese increased the number of trade missions that would dock at ports throughout the Indian Ocean, where Arab and Hindu influence was once predominant. The Chinese sailed regularly to Korea and Japan in the Far East, westwards towards India and Sri Lanka, and into the Persian Gulf
, and the Red Sea
. The Chinese were keen to import goods such as rare woods, precious metals, gems, spices, and ivory, while exporting goods such as silk, ceramics, lacquer-ware, copper cash, dyes, and even books. In 1178, the Guangzhou customs officer Zhou Qufei wrote of an island far west in the Indian Ocean (possibly Madagascar
), from where people with skin "as black as lacquer" and with frizzy hair were captured and purchased as slaves by Arab merchants. As an important maritime trader, China appeared also on geographical maps of the Islamic world. In 1154 the Moroccan
geographer
Al-Idrisi published his Geography, where he described the Chinese seagoing vessels as having aboard goods such as iron, swords, leather, silk, velvet, along with textiles from Aden
(modern-day Yemen), the Indus River
region, and Euphrates River region (modern-day Iraq
). He also commended the silk manufactured at Quanzhou as being unparalleled in the world for its quality, while the Chinese capital at Hangzhou was best known throughout the Islamic world for being a major producer of glass wares. By at least the 13th century, the Chinese were even familiar with the story of the ancient Lighthouse of Alexandria
since it is described at length by Zhao Rugua
, a Southern Song customs inspector of Quanzhou.
In 1153 the Jin Emperor Hailingwang
, born as Wányán Liàng (完顏亮), moved the empire's capital from Huining Fu
in northern Manchuria (south of present-day Harbin
) to Zhongdu (now Beijing
). Four years later in 1157 he razed Beijing, including the nobles’ residences, and moved the Jin's southern capital from Beijing to Kaifeng. It was here at the former seat of the Song Dynasty that he began a large project of reconstruction (since the siege against it in 1127). For much of his reign there was peace between Jin and Song, while both states upheld an uninterrupted flow of commercial trade between each other. While amassing tribute from the Southern Song, the Jin Dynasty also imported large amounts of tea, rice, sugar, and books from the Southern Song. However, Hailingwang reopened the Jin Dynasty's armed conflict with the Song by the 1160s.
Emperor Wanyan Liang established a military campaign against the Southern Song in 1161, with 70,000 naval troops aboard 600 warships facing a smaller Song fleet of only 120 warships and 3,000 men. At the Battle of Tangdao
and the Battle of Caishi
along the Yangtze River, Jin forces were defeated by the Southern Song navy. In these battles, the Jin navy was wiped out by the much smaller Song fleet because of their use of fast paddle-wheel crafts
and gunpowder bombs launched from trebuchet catapults (since explosive grenade
s and bombs had been known in China since the 10th century). Meanwhile, two simultaneous rebellions of Jurchen nobles, led by soon-to-be crowned Jin Emperor Wányán Yōng (完顏雍) and Khitan
tribesman, erupted in Manchuria
. This forced the reluctant court of the Jin Dynasty to withdraw its troops from southern China to quell these uprisings. In the end, Emperor Wányán Liàng failed in taking the Southern Song and was assassinated by his own generals in December 1161. The Khitan uprising was not suppressed until 1164, while the Treaty of Longxing (隆興和議) was signed in 1165 between Song and Jin, reestablishing the 1142 border line and ushering in four decades of peace between the two.
In the years 1205 and 1209 the Jin state was under raid attacks by Mongols
from the north, and in 1211 the major campaign led by Genghis Khan
was launched. His army consisted of fifty thousand bowmen, while his three sons led armies of similar size. Patricia Ebrey writes that at this point the Mongol population could not have been greater than 1.5 million, yet they boosted their numbers by employing Khitans and Han Chinese "who felt no great loyalty to their Jurchen lords." After a Jurchen general murdered Emperor Weishaowang of Jin
in 1213 and placed Emperor Xuanzong of Jin
on the throne, a peace settlement was negotiated between Jin and the Mongol forces in 1214, as Genghis made the Jin Dynasty a vassal state of the Mongol Empire. However, when the Jin court moved from Beijing to Kaifeng, Genghis saw this move as a revolt, and moved upon the old Jin capital at Beijing in 1215, sacking and burning it. Although the now small Jin state attempted to defend against the Mongols and even fought battles with the Song in 1216 and 1223, the Jin were attacked by the Mongols again in 1229 with the ascension of Ögedei Khan
. According to the account of 1232, written by the Jin commander Chizhan Hexi, the Jurchens led a valiant effort against the Mongols, whom they frigthened and demoralized in the siege of the capital by the use of 'thunder-crash-bombs' and fire lance
flamethrower
s. However, the capital at Kaifeng was captured by siege in 1233, and by 1234 the Jin Dynasty finally fell in defeat to the Mongols.
The Western Xia Dynasty met a similar fate, becoming an unreliable vassal to the Mongols by seeking to secure alliances with Jin and Song. Genghis Khan had died in 1227 during the 5 month siege of their capital city, and being held somewhat responsible for this, the last Xia ruler was hacked to death when he was persuaded to exit the gates of his city with a small entourage.
, Luoyang
and Chang'an
. However the cities, ravaged by years of warfare, lacked economic capacity and yielded little defensibility. This breaking of alliance meant open warfare between the Mongols and the Song Chinese. Ögodei Khan's forces conquered fifty-four out of Sichuan
's fifty-eight total districts by 1236, while ordering the slaughter of over a million people that inhabited the city of Chengdu
, which was taken by the Mongols with ease.
The Mongols eventually gained the upper hand under Mongke Khan
, famed for his battles in Russia and Hungary in Eastern Europe
, and ushered in the final destruction of the ruling Ch'oe family of Korea
in 1258. In 1252 Mongke commissioned his younger brother Kublai
to conquer the Kingdom of Dali
in the southwest (modern Yunnan
province), which was a successful campaign from the summer of 1253 to early 1254. Mongke also sent a military campaign into northern Vietnam (which was a failure). Mongke sent his renowned general and brother Hulagu east to face Syria
and Egypt
, after he had sacked and razed medieval Baghdad
to the ground in 1258 during the sack of Baghdad
, bringing an end to the Abbasid
Caliphate
and the Islamic Golden Age
. Meanwhile, Mongke infiltrated Song territory further, until he died while battling the Song Chinese at Fishing Town
, Chongqing
on August 11, 1259. There are several different claims as to how he died; the causes of death include either an arrow wound from a Chinese archer during the siege, dysentery
, or cholera
epidemic. Whatever the cause, his death halted the invasion of the Southern Song, and sparked a succession crisis that would ultimately favor Kublai Khan as the new Khaghan of the Mongols. Mongke's death in battle also led to the recall of the main Mongol armies led by Hulagu campaigning in the Middle East. Hulagu had to travel back to Mongolia in order to partake in the traditional tribal meeting of the khuriltai to appoint a new successor of the Mongol Khanate. In Hulagu's absence, the emboldened Mamluks of Egypt were ready to face the Mongols. Mongol forces under Christian
Kitbuqa
's command were defeated in a decisive blow at Ain Jalut
. This marked the extent of Mongol conquests west, but in the east, the Song Dynasty had to be dealt with.
Although Mongke's forces stalled the war effort immediately after his death, his younger brother Kublai continued to fight the Southern Song along the Yangzi River
for the next two months into the autumn of 1259. Kublai made a daring advance across the river during a storm, and assaulted the Southern Song troops on the other side. Both sides suffered considerable casualties, but Kublai's troops were victorious and gained a foothold south of the Yangzi. Kublai made preparations to take the heavily fortified city of Ezhou
. Meanwhile, the Song Dynasty chancellor Jia Sidao
贾似道 dispatched General Lü Wende to lead the reinforcements in the defense of Ezhou, and on October 5 Lü slipped past Kublai's ill-prepared forces and entered the city. Jia Sidao then sent his general and emissary Song Jing to negotiate a tributary settlement with Kublai. He offered Kublai annual tribute of silver like in the earlier treaty with the Khitans, in return for the territories south of the Yangzi that had been taken by the Mongols. Kublai rejected the proposal since he was already in a favorable strategic position on the other side of the Yangzi. However, Kublai had to suspend the war and travel north with the majority of his forces due to his rival brother Ariq Böke
leading a sudden movement of troops towards Kublai's home base of Xanadu
.
Kublai's absence from the war front was seen by Chancellor Jia Sidao as an opportune moment, so he ordered to resume armed conflict. The Song army routed the small armed detachment that Kublai had stationed south of the Yangzi, and the Song regained its lost territory. With his ally Hulagu busy fighting the Golden Horde
and his own forces needed in the north against the rival Khagan claimant Ariq Böke, Kublai was unable to focus on hostilities in the south. On May 21, 1260, Kublai sent his envoy Hao Jing and two other advisors to negotiate with the Southern Song. Upon their arrival and attempts to solve the conflict through diplomatic means, Jia Sidao ordered Kublai's embassy to be detained. Although Kublai would not forget this slight of imprisoning his ambassadors, he nonetheless had to focus on more pressing affairs with the threat of his brother and rival Khan. From 1260 to 1262 the Song forces raided Kublai's southern border which forced Kublai to retaliate with some minor incursions until 1264, when his brother finally surrendered and ended the civil war. In 1265 the first major battle in five years erupted in Sichuan province, where Kublai gained a preliminary victory and considerable war booty of 146 Song naval ships.
While Kublai attended to other matters in the north, the Song court was mobilizing its populace for war and all available resources that could be rendered and drained into the war effort. In the mid 13th century, the Song government led by Jia Sidao began confiscating portions of estates owned by the rich in order to raise revenues in a land nationalization scheme. This had the negative effect of alienating the wealthy landowners and hastening the collapse of the empire, as wealthy landlords and merchants favored what they deemed the inevitable Mongol conquest and rule than the other alternative of paying higher taxes for continual, exhaustive warfare.
There was also mounting political opposition against Chancellor Jia Sidao. Jia had purged several dissident officials who were opposed to his reforms aimed at limiting official corruption and personal profiteering. When he replaced some of these officials with his own cronies, however, political conditions were ripe for a schism at court and within the gentry class that would be favorable to a strong, unified force led by Kublai. Kublai used various ploys and gestures in order to entice defectors from the Southern Song to his side. Kublai Khan established Dadu
(Beijing) as his new capital in 1264, catering to the likes of the Chinese with his advisor Liu Bingzhong
and the naming of his dynasty with the Chinese word for "primal" ("Yuan"). He made it a policy to grant land, clothing, and oxen to Song Dynasty Chinese who defected to his side. Kublai Khan chose the moral high ground of releasing Song captives and prisoners while Jia Sidao refused to release Kublai's emissary Hao Jing. In 1261 Kublai personally released seventy-five Song merchants captured at the border; in 1263 he released fifty-seven merchants; in 1269 he released forty-five merchants. In 1264 he publicly reprimanded his own officers for executing two Song generals without trial or investigation. With these acts his reputation and legitimacy in the eyes of the Chinese were greatly enhanced.
from 1268 to 1273. Xiangyang and the adjacent town of Fancheng
were located on the opposite bank of the Han River
and were the last fortified obstacles in Kublai's way towards the rich Yangzi River basin. Kublai made an attempt to starve the city of its supply lines by gaining naval supremacy along the Han River in a gigantic blockade. It was the Song defector Liu Zheng who was the main proponent in advising Kublai Khan to expand the Yuan Dynasty's naval strength, which was a great factor in their success. On several occasions—August 1269, March 1270, August 1271, and September 1272—the Southern Song attempted to break the Yuan blockade with its own navy, yet each attempt was a costly failure of thousands of men and hundreds of ships. An international force — composed of Chinese, Jurchens, Koreans
, Mongols, Uyghur Turks
, and Middle Eastern Muslims— contributed to Kublai's siege effort in crafting ships and artillery. After the siege, in the summer of 1273, Kublai appointed the Chinese general Shi Tianze and Turkic general Bayan
as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. However, Shi Tianze died in 1275; Bayan was then granted a force of 200,000 (composed mostly of Han Chinese) to assault Song.
In March 1275 the forces of Bayan faced the army of Chancellor Jia Sidao, which was 130,000 strong; the end result was a decisive victory for Bayan, and Jia was forced to retreat after many deserted him. This was the opportune moment for his political rivals to smite him. Jia was effectively stripped of rank, title, and office and banished to Fujian
in exile from the court; while en route to Fujian, he was killed by the same commander that was appointed to accompany him. After his death many of his supporters and opposing ministers submitted to Bayan. By 1276 the Yuan army had conquered nearly all of the Southern Song's territory, including the capital at Hangzhou.
Meanwhile the rebel remnants of the Song court fled to Fuzhou
. Emperor Gong
was left behind as the empress dowager submitted to Bayan, horrified by reports of the total slaughter of Changzhou
. Before the capital was taken, Empress Dowager Xie (1208–1282) made attempts to negotiate with Bayan, promising annual tribute to the Yuan Dynasty, but he rejected these proposals. After her attempts at diplomacy had failed, she handed over the Song Dynasty's imperial seal to Bayan, "an unambiguous symbol of capitulation." With the submission of Emperor Gong, Bayan ordered that the Song imperial family should be respected, and forbade the pillaging of their imperial tombs or treasuries. Kublai granted the deposed emperor the title "Duke of Ying", but he was eventually exiled to Tibet
where he took up a monastic life in 1296.
Any hope of resistance was centered on two young princes, Emperor Gong's brothers. The older boy, Zhao Shi
, who was nine years old, was declared emperor on June 14, 1276, in Fuzhou. The court sought refuge in Quanzhou, seeking an alliance with the Superintendent of Maritime Shipping, the Muslim Pu Shougeng. However, he secretly formed an alliance with Kublai, so the Song court was forced to flee in 1277. The court then sought refuge in Silvermine Bay (Mui Wo
) on Lantau Island
(in later eras known as Kowloon City
, Hong Kong
). The older brother became ill and died on May 8, 1278 at age ten, and was succeeded by his younger brother who became Emperor Huaizong of Song
, aged seven. The Sung Wong Toi
monument in Kowloon commemorates his enthronement. On March 19, 1279 the Song army was defeated in its last battle, the Battle of Yamen
, fought against the Yuan army led by the Chinese general Zhang Hongfan
in the Pearl River Delta
. Song Prime Minister Lu Xiufu
is said to have taken the boy emperor in his arms and jumped from his sinking ship into the sea, drowning both of them.
With the death of the last remaining emperor, Song China was eliminated, while Kublai Khan established the realm of the Yuan Dynasty
over China proper
, Mongolia, Manchuria, Tibet, and Korea. For nearly a century to follow, the Chinese would live under a dynasty established by Mongols. However, a native Han Chinese
dynasty would be established once more with the Ming Dynasty
in 1368.
During the Song Dynasty, the Zizhi Tongjian
(Chinese: 資治通鑒/资治通鉴; Wade-Giles: Tzu-chih t'ung-chien; literally "Comprehensive Mirror for/to Aid in Government") was an enormous work of Chinese historiography
, a written approach to a universal history
of China, compiled in the 11th century. The work was first ordered to be compiled by Emperor Yingzong of Song
in 1065, the team of scholars headed by Sima Guang
, who presented the completed work to Emperor Shenzong of Song
in 1084. Its total length was 294 volumes containing roughly 3 million Chinese character
s. The Zizhi Tongjian covers the people, places, and events of Chinese history from the beginning of the Warring States in 403 BC until the beginning of the Song Dynasty in 959. Its size, brevity, and scope has often been compared to the groundbreaking work of Chinese historiography compiled by the ancient historian Sima Qian
(145 BC–90 BC), known as the Shiji. This historical work was later compiled and condensed into fifty nine different books by the Neo-Confucian philosopher Zhu Xi
in 1189, yet his pupils had to complete the work shortly after his death in 1200. During the Manchu
Qing Dynasty
, the book was reprinted in 1708, while the European Jesuit Father Joseph Anne Maria de Moyriac de Mailla (1679–1748) translated it shortly after in 1737. It was later edited and published by the Jesuit Abbé, Jean Baptiste Gabriel Alexandre Grosier (1743–1823), in part with Le Roux des Hauterays, where a thirteenth volume and a title page were added. It was also translated and published by the Jesuit astronomer Antoine Gaubil
in 1759, whose pupils founded a Russian
school of sinology
.
Another historical source was the enormous encyclopedia Prime Tortoise of the Record Bureau
published by 1013, one of the Four Great Books of Song
. Divided into 1000 volumes of 9.4 million written Chinese characters, this book provided important information on political essays of the period, extensive autobiographies on rulers and various subjects, as well as a multitude of different memorial
s and decrees brought forth to the imperial court. However, the official history of the Song Dynasty was the Song Shi, compiled in 1345 during the Yuan Dynasty. The recorded history of the Jurchen Jin Dynasty, the Jin Shi, was compiled in the same year. This historical book is one of the classic Twenty-Four Histories
of China.
Song Dynasty
The Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...
(Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
: 宋朝; pinyin
Pinyin
Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...
: Sòng cháo; 960–1279, some say 1276) of China was a ruling dynasty
Dynasty
A dynasty is a sequence of rulers considered members of the same family. Historians traditionally consider many sovereign states' history within a framework of successive dynasties, e.g., China, Ancient Egypt and the Persian Empire...
that controlled China proper and southern China from the middle of the 10th century into the last quarter of the 13th century. The Song Dynasty is considered a high point of classical Chinese innovation in science and technology
History of science and technology in China
The history of science and technology in China is both long and rich with many contributions to science and technology. In antiquity, independently of other civilizations, ancient Chinese philosophers made significant advances in science, technology, mathematics, and astronomy...
, an era that featured prominent intellectual figures such as Shen Kuo
Shen Kuo
Shen Kuo or Shen Gua , style name Cunzhong and pseudonym Mengqi Weng , was a polymathic Chinese scientist and statesman of the Song Dynasty...
and Su Song
Su Song
Su Song was a renowned Chinese polymath who specialized himself as a statesman, astronomer, cartographer, horologist, pharmacologist, mineralogist, zoologist, botanist, mechanical and architectural engineer, poet, antiquarian, and ambassador of the Song Dynasty .Su Song was the engineer of a...
and the revolutionary use of gunpowder
Gunpowder
Gunpowder, also known since in the late 19th century as black powder, was the first chemical explosive and the only one known until the mid 1800s. It is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate - with the sulfur and charcoal acting as fuels, while the saltpeter works as an oxidizer...
weapons (catapult
Catapult
A catapult is a device used to throw or hurl a projectile a great distance without the aid of explosive devices—particularly various types of ancient and medieval siege engines. Although the catapult has been used since ancient times, it has proven to be one of the most effective mechanisms during...
-projected bomb
Bomb
A bomb is any of a range of explosive weapons that only rely on the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy...
s, fire lance
Fire lance
The fire lance or fire spear is one of the first gunpowder weapons in the world.- Description :The earliest fire lances were spear-like weapons combining a bamboo tube containing gunpowder and projectiles tied to a Chinese spear. Upon firing, the charge ejected a small projectile or poison dart...
s, flamethrower
Flamethrower
A flamethrower is a mechanical device designed to project a long controllable stream of fire.Some flamethrowers project a stream of ignited flammable liquid; some project a long gas flame. Most military flamethrowers use liquids, but commercial flamethrowers tend to use high-pressure propane and...
s, and land mine
Land mine
A land mine is usually a weight-triggered explosive device which is intended to damage a target—either human or inanimate—by means of a blast and/or fragment impact....
s). However, it was also a period of political and military turmoil, with opposing and often aggressive political factions formed at court, which impeded progress in many ways. The frontier management policies of the Chancellor Wang Anshi
Wang Anshi
Wang Anshi was a Chinese economist, statesman, chancellor and poet of the Song Dynasty who attempted controversial, major socioeconomic reforms...
exacerbated hostile conditions along the Chinese-Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
ese border, sparking a border war with the Lý Dynasty
Lý Dynasty
The Lý Dynasty , sometimes known as the Later Lý Dynasty , was a Vietnamese dynasty that began in 1009 when Lý Thái Tổ overthrew the Prior Lê Dynasty and ended in 1225 when the queen Lý Chiêu Hoàng was forced to abdicate the throne in favor of her husband, Trần Cảnh. They ruled Vietnam for a...
. Although this conflict was fought to a mutual draw, there was subsequently an enormous military defeat at the hands of invading Jurchens
Jurchens
The Jurchens were a Tungusic people who inhabited the region of Manchuria until the 17th century, when they adopted the name Manchu...
from the north in 1127, forcing the remnants of the Song court to flee south from Kaifeng
Kaifeng
Kaifeng , known previously by several names , is a prefecture-level city in east-central Henan province, Central China. Nearly 5 million people live in the metropolitan area...
and establish a new capital at Hangzhou
Hangzhou
Hangzhou , formerly transliterated as Hangchow, is the capital and largest city of Zhejiang Province in Eastern China. Governed as a sub-provincial city, and as of 2010, its entire administrative division or prefecture had a registered population of 8.7 million people...
. It was there that new naval
Navy
A navy is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake- or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions...
strength was developed to combat the Jurchen's Jin Dynasty formed in the north. Although the Song Dynasty was able to defeat further Jurchen invasions, the Mongols led by Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan , born Temujin and occasionally known by his temple name Taizu , was the founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death....
, Ögedei Khan
Ögedei Khan
Ögedei Khan, born Ögedei was the third son of Genghis Khan and second Great Khan of the Mongol Empire by succeeding his father...
, Möngke Khan
Möngke Khan
Möngke Khan , born Möngke, , was the fourth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire from July 1, 1251 – August 11, 1259. He was the first Great Khan from the Toluid line, and made significant reforms to improve the administration of the Empire during his reign...
, and finally Kublai Khan
Kublai Khan
Kublai Khan , born Kublai and also known by the temple name Shizu , was the fifth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire from 1260 to 1294 and the founder of the Yuan Dynasty in China...
gradually conquered China, until the fall of the final Song Emperor in 1279.
Founding of the Song
The Later Zhou DynastyLater Zhou Dynasty
The Later Zhou Dynasty was the last a succession of five dynasties that controlled most of northern China during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, which lasted from 907 to 960 and bridged the gap between the Tang Dynasty and the Song Dynasty.-Founding of the Dynasty:Guo Wei, a Han...
was the last of the Five Dynasties that had controlled northern China after the fall of the Tang Dynasty
Tang Dynasty
The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
in 907. Zhao Kuangyin, later known as Emperor Taizu
Emperor Taizu of Song
Emperor Tàizǔ , born Zhao Kuangyin , was the founder of the Song Dynasty of China, reigning from 960 to 976.-Ancestry and early life:...
(r. 960–976), usurped the throne from the Zhou with the support of military commanders in 960, initiating the Song Dynasty. Upon taking the throne, his first goal was the reunification of China after half a century of political division. This included the conquests of Nanping
Jingnan
Jingnan was one of the Ten Kingdoms in south-central China created in 924, marking the beginning of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period Jingnan (荆南) (also called Nanping (南平)) was one of the Ten Kingdoms in south-central China created in 924, marking the beginning of the Five Dynasties and...
, Wu-Yue, Southern Han
Southern Han
Southern Han was a kingdom that existed during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period along China’s southern coast from 917 to 971. The Kingdom greatly expanded her capital city Hing Wong Fu , namely present-day Guangzhou...
, Later Shu
Later Shu
Later Shu was one of the Ten Kingdoms during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period in China from 907 to 960. It was located in present-day Sichuan with its capital in Chengdu.-Founding:...
, and Southern Tang
Southern Tang
Southern Tang was one of the Ten Kingdoms in south-central China created following the Tang Dynasty from 937-975. Southern Tang replaced the Wu Kingdom when Li Bian deposed the emperor Yang Pu....
in the south as well as the Northern Han
Northern Han
The Northern Han kingdom is a state of the Ten Kingdoms in the Period of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. It was founded by Liu Min , formerly known as Liu Chong , and lasted from 951 – 979.-Founding of the Northern Han:...
and the Sixteen Prefectures
Sixteen Prefectures
The Sixteen Prefectures are a region in northern China stretching from present-day Beijing westward to Datong. In most areas, it is approximately seventy to one hundred miles in width...
in the north. With capable military officers such as Yang Ye (d. 986), Liu Tingrang (929–987), Cao Bin (931–999) and Huyan Zan
Huyan Zan
Huyan Zan was a military general who lived during the Northern Song Dynasty period of Chinese history.-Biography:Huyan Zan's ancestral home was in Taiyuan, Bingzhou . His family was of Xiongnu origin and was gradually assimilated into Han Chinese society after the Western and Eastern Jin dynasties...
(d. 1000), the early Song military became the dominant force in China. Innovative military tactics, such as defending supply lines across floating pontoon bridge
Pontoon bridge
A pontoon bridge or floating bridge is a bridge that floats on water and in which barge- or boat-like pontoons support the bridge deck and its dynamic loads. While pontoon bridges are usually temporary structures, some are used for long periods of time...
s led to success in battle such as the Song assault against the Southern Tang state while crossing the Yangzi River in 974. Using a mass of arrow fire from crossbowmen, Song forces were able to defeat the renowned war elephant
War elephant
A war elephant was an elephant trained and guided by humans for combat. Their main use was to charge the enemy, trampling them and breaking their ranks. A division of war elephants is known as elephantry....
corps of the Southern Han
Southern Han
Southern Han was a kingdom that existed during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period along China’s southern coast from 917 to 971. The Kingdom greatly expanded her capital city Hing Wong Fu , namely present-day Guangzhou...
on January 23, 971, thus forcing the submission of Southern Han and terminating the first and last elephant corps that would make up a regular division within a Chinese army.
Sixteen Prefectures
The Sixteen Prefectures are a region in northern China stretching from present-day Beijing westward to Datong. In most areas, it is approximately seventy to one hundred miles in width...
were unsuccessful and they were incorporated into the Liao state based in Manchuria
Manchuria
Manchuria is a historical name given to a large geographic region in northeast Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria usually falls entirely within the People's Republic of China, or is sometimes divided between China and Russia. The region is commonly referred to as Northeast...
to the immediate north instead. To the far northwest, the Tanguts had been in power over northern Shaanxi
Shaanxi
' is a province in the central part of Mainland China, and it includes portions of the Loess Plateau on the middle reaches of the Yellow River in addition to the Qinling Mountains across the southern part of this province...
since 881, after the earlier Tang court appointed a Tangut chief as a military governor (jiedushi
Jiedushi
The Jiedushi were regional military governors in China during the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. Originally set up to counter external threats, the jiedushi were given enormous power, including the ability to maintain their own armies, collect taxes, and pass their...
) over the region, a seat that became hereditary (forming the Xi-Xia Dynasty). Although the Song state was evenly matched against the Liao Dynasty, the Song gained significant military victories against the Western Xia (who would eventually fall to the Mongol conquest of Genghis Khan in 1227).
After political consolidation through military conquest, Emperor Taizu held a famous banquet inviting many of the high-ranking military officers that had served him in Song's various conquests. As his military officers drank wine and feasted with Taizu, he spoke to them about the potential of a military coup against him like those of Five Dynasties era. His military officers protested against this notion, and insisted that none were as qualified as him to lead the country. The passage of this account in the Song Shi follows as such:
The emperor said, 'The life of man is short. Happiness is to have the wealth and means to enjoy life, and then to be able to leave the same prosperity to one's descendents. If you, my officers, will renounce your military authority, retire to the provinces, and choose there the best lands and the most delightful dwelling-places, there to pass the rest of your lives in pleasure and peace...would this not be better than to live a life of peril and uncertainty? So that no shadow of suspicion shall remain between prince and ministers, we will ally our families with marriages, and thus, ruler and subject linked in friendship and amity, we will enjoy tranquility'...The following day, the army commanders all offered their resignations, reporting (imaginary) maladies, and withdrew to the country districts, where the emperor, giving them splendid gifts, appointed them to high official positions.
Emperor Taizu developed an effective centralized bureaucracy
Bureaucracy
A bureaucracy is an organization of non-elected officials of a governmental or organization who implement the rules, laws, and functions of their institution, and are occasionally characterized by officialism and red tape.-Weberian bureaucracy:...
staffed with civilian scholar-officials and regional military governors and their supporters were replaced by centrally appointed officials. This system of civilian rule led to a greater concentration of power in the central government headed by the emperor than had been possible during the previous dynasties. In the early 11th century, there were some 30,000 men who took the prefectural exams per year (see imperial examination
Imperial examination
The Imperial examination was an examination system in Imperial China designed to select the best administrative officials for the state's bureaucracy. This system had a huge influence on both society and culture in Imperial China and was directly responsible for the creation of a class of...
), which steadily increased to roughly 80,000 by the end of the century, and to 400,000 exam takers during the 13th century. Although new municipal
Township
The word township is used to refer to different kinds of settlements in different countries. Township is generally associated with an urban area. However there are many exceptions to this rule. In Australia, the United States, and Canada, they may be settlements too small to be considered urban...
governments were often established, the same number of prefectures and provinces were in existence as before the Song Dynasty came to power. Thus although more people were taking exams, roughly the same number were being accepted into the government as in previous periods, making the civil service exams very competitive amongst aspiring students and scholars.
Emperor Taizu also found other ways to consolidate and strengthen his power, including updated map-making (cartography
Cartography
Cartography is the study and practice of making maps. Combining science, aesthetics, and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality can be modeled in ways that communicate spatial information effectively.The fundamental problems of traditional cartography are to:*Set the map's...
) so that his central administration could easily discern how to handle affairs in the provinces. In 971, he ordered Lu Duosun to update and 're-write all the Tu Jing [maps] in the world'; a daunting task for one individual. Nonetheless, he traveled throughout the provinces to collect illustrative gazetteer
Gazetteer
A gazetteer is a geographical dictionary or directory, an important reference for information about places and place names , used in conjunction with a map or a full atlas. It typically contains information concerning the geographical makeup of a country, region, or continent as well as the social...
s and as much data as possible. With the aid of Song Zhun, the massive work was completed in 1010, with some 1566 chapters. The later Song Shi historical text stated (Wade-Giles
Wade-Giles
Wade–Giles , sometimes abbreviated Wade, is a romanization system for the Mandarin Chinese language. It developed from a system produced by Thomas Wade during the mid-19th century , and was given completed form with Herbert Giles' Chinese–English dictionary of 1892.Wade–Giles was the most...
spelling):
Yuan Hsieh (d. +1220) was Director-General of governmental grain stores. In pursuance of his schemes for the relief of famines he issued orders that each pao (village) should prepare a map which would show the fields and mountains, the rivers and the roads in fullest detail. The maps of all the pao were joined together to make a map of the tu (larger district), and these in turn were joined with others to make a map of the hsiang and the hsien (still larger districts). If there was any trouble about the collection of taxes or the distribution of grain, or if the question of chasing robbers and bandits arose, the provincial officials could readily carry out their duties by the aid of the maps.
Taizu also displayed a strong interest in science and technology. He employed the Imperial Workshop to support such projects as Zhang Sixun
Zhang Sixun
Zhang Sixun was a Chinese astronomer and military engineer from Bazhong, Sichuan during the early Song Dynasty . He is credited with creating an armillary sphere for his astronomical clock tower that employed the use of liquid mercury...
's hydraulic-powered armillary sphere
Armillary sphere
An armillary sphere is a model of objects in the sky , consisting of a spherical framework of rings, centred on Earth, that represent lines of celestial longitude and latitude and other astronomically important features such as the ecliptic...
(for astronomical observation and time-keeping) that used liquid mercury
Mercury (element)
Mercury is a chemical element with the symbol Hg and atomic number 80. It is also known as quicksilver or hydrargyrum...
instead of water (because liquid mercury would not freeze during winter). Emperor Taizu was also quite open-minded in his affairs, especially with those perceived as foreigners: he appointed the Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
Ma Yize
Ma Yize
Ma Yize was an important Arab-Chinese Islamic astronomer and astrologist who worked as the chief official of the astronomical observatory for the Song dynasty....
(910–1005) as the chief astronomer of the Song court. For receiving envoys from the Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
n kingdom of Goryeo
Goryeo
The Goryeo Dynasty or Koryŏ was a Korean dynasty established in 918 by Emperor Taejo. Korea gets its name from this kingdom which came to be pronounced Korea. It united the Later Three Kingdoms in 936 and ruled most of the Korean peninsula until it was removed by the Joseon dynasty in 1392...
alone, the Song court had roughly 1,500 volumes written about the nuanced rules, regulations, and guidelines for their reception. The Song also sent envoys abroad, such as Wang Yande (939–1006) who was sent as an official envoy to the Uyghur-Turkic
Uyghur people
The Uyghur are a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia. Today, Uyghurs live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China...
city of Gaochang
Gaochang
Gaochang is the site of an ancient oasis city built on the northern rim of the inhospitable Taklamakan Desert in Xinjiang, China. A busy trading center, it was a stopping point for merchant traders traveling on the Silk Road...
in 981, then under Kara-Khanid
Kara-Khanid Khanate
The Kara-Khanid Khanate was a confederation of Turkic tribes ruled by a dynasty known in literature as the Karakhanids or Ilek Khanids, . Both dynastic names represent titles with Kara Kağan being the most important Turkish title up till the end of the dynasty.The Khanate ruled Transoxania in...
control.
The Great Ditch and Treaty of Shanyuan
Northern Han
The Northern Han kingdom is a state of the Ten Kingdoms in the Period of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. It was founded by Liu Min , formerly known as Liu Chong , and lasted from 951 – 979.-Founding of the Northern Han:...
and the Sixteen Prefectures
Sixteen Prefectures
The Sixteen Prefectures are a region in northern China stretching from present-day Beijing westward to Datong. In most areas, it is approximately seventy to one hundred miles in width...
notwithstanding. In 974, the two began exchanging embassies on New Years Day
Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year – often called Chinese Lunar New Year although it actually is lunisolar – is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It is an all East and South-East-Asia celebration...
. However, in 979 the Song moved against the Northern Han
Northern Han
The Northern Han kingdom is a state of the Ten Kingdoms in the Period of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. It was founded by Liu Min , formerly known as Liu Chong , and lasted from 951 – 979.-Founding of the Northern Han:...
, long under the protection of the Liao Dynasty
Liao Dynasty
The Liao Dynasty , also known as the Khitan Empire was an empire in East Asia that ruled over the regions of Manchuria, Mongolia, and parts of northern China proper between 9071125...
. The Song emperor succeeded in forcing the Northern Han to surrender, but when marching on the Liao Southern Capital (present-day Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
) in the Sixteen Prefectures, Song forces were defeated at the Battle of Gaoliang River
Battle of Gaoliang River
The Battle of Gaoliang River was fought in 979 between the Liao Dynasty and Song Dynasty in what is today the city of Beijing. The Liao victory ended a Song campaign to recapture the Sixteen Prefectures in North China....
. This defeat was politically damaging to the prestige of Emperor Taizong of Song
Emperor Taizong of Song
Emperor Taizong , born Zhao Kuangyi, was the second emperor of the Song Dynasty of China from 976 to 997. He was the younger brother of Emperor Taizu. His temple name Taizong means "Grand Ancestor".-Overview:...
(r. 976–997), so much so that his top military commanders orchestrated an aborted coup to replace him with his nephew Dezhao.
Relations between the Song and Liao remained tense and hostile: in 986 the Song sent three armies against the Liao in an effort to take advantage of an infant emperor and recapture the Sixteen Prefectures, but the Liao successfully repulsed all three armies. Following this, diplomatic relations were resumed. Relations between Song and Liao worsened in the 990s. From 993 to 1004, the Liao observed the Song as the latter built a 'Great Ditch' in northern Hebei
Hebei
' is a province of the People's Republic of China in the North China region. Its one-character abbreviation is "" , named after Ji Province, a Han Dynasty province that included what is now southern Hebei...
province from the Taihang Mountains
Taihang Mountains
The Taihang Mountains are a Chinese mountain range running down the eastern edge of the Loess Plateau in Henan, Shanxi and Hebei provinces. The range extends over 400 km from north to south and has an average elevation of 1,500 to 2,000 meters. The principal peak is Xiao Wutaishan...
in the west all the way to the Bohai Sea
Bohai Sea
Bohai Sea , also known as Bohai Gulf, Bohai, or Bo Hai, is the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea on the coast of Northeastern and North China. It is approximately 78,000 km2 Bohai Sea , also known as Bohai Gulf, Bohai, or Bo Hai, is the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea on the coast of...
in the east. This was essentially a series of canals meant to block the advance of Liao cavalry far from the northern border line, although the Liao perceived this engineering project as a means for the Song to dispatch offensive forces more efficiently via new waterways. In 999 the Liao began annual attacks on Song positions, though with no breakthrough victories. The Liao were interested in capturing the Guannan region of northern Hebei, both because the Song general Zhou Shizong had taken it from them and because it contained strategic passes.
Kaifeng
Kaifeng , known previously by several names , is a prefecture-level city in east-central Henan province, Central China. Nearly 5 million people live in the metropolitan area...
. However, their forces were greatly overextended and any possible escape route was in danger of being blocked by Song forces. Eventually, the completion of the 'Great Ditch' as an effective defensive blockade which slowed the advance of Liao cavalry forced the Liao to request a truce. Negotiations resulted in the Treaty of Shanyuan, signed in January 1005 (some sources cite 1004 due to the Chinese Lunar Calendar
Chinese calendar
The Chinese calendar is a lunisolar calendar, incorporating elements of a lunar calendar with those of a solar calendar. It is not exclusive to China, but followed by many other Asian cultures as well...
), which fixed the borders of the Song and Liao as they were before the conflict. The Khitan rulers also wanted to intermarry with the Zhao family line of the Song, an offer that the Song refused in favor of a nominal and figurative imperial kinship. However, the treaty required the Song to make annual tribute
Tribute
A tribute is wealth, often in kind, that one party gives to another as a sign of respect or, as was often the case in historical contexts, of submission or allegiance. Various ancient states, which could be called suzerains, exacted tribute from areas they had conquered or threatened to conquer...
payments to the Liao and recognize Liao equality with the Song. The tribute consisted of 283 kg (100,000 oz) of silver along with 200,000 bolts of silk, increasing to 500,000 units by 1042. However, even with the increase in 1042, the Song Dynasty economy was not damaged by this enforced tribute. The bullion holding of the Liao Dynasty did not increase with the tribute either, since the Song exported many goods annually to the Liao Dynasty, dwarfing the amount of imported goods from Liao. Therefore much of the silver sent to Liao as tribute was used to pay for Song Chinese goods, and the silver wound up back into the hands of Chinese merchants and the Song government.
Until the Song Dynasty took advantage of a large rebellion within the Liao Kingdom in 1125, the Song had to conduct cordial relations with the Liao Dynasty. Skilled ambassadors were sent on missions to court the Liao Dynasty and maintain peace, such as the renowned horologist, engineer, and state minister Su Song
Su Song
Su Song was a renowned Chinese polymath who specialized himself as a statesman, astronomer, cartographer, horologist, pharmacologist, mineralogist, zoologist, botanist, mechanical and architectural engineer, poet, antiquarian, and ambassador of the Song Dynasty .Su Song was the engineer of a...
. The Song also prepared for armed conflict, increasing the overall size of the armed forces to a million soldiers by 1022. By that time, however, the military was consuming three-quarters of the tax revenues gathered by the state, compared to a mere 2 or 3 percent of state income that would be consumed by just providing the Liao with tribute. Due to these circumstances, intense political rivalries would later arise in the Song court over how to handle these issues.
Conflict and diplomacy in the northwest
Western Xia
The Western Xia Dynasty or the Tangut Empire, was known to the Tanguts and the Tibetans as Minyak.The state existed from 1038 to 1227 AD in what are now the northwestern Chinese provinces of Ningxia, Gansu, eastern Qinghai, northern Shaanxi, northeastern Xinjiang, southwest Inner Mongolia, and...
Dynasty as early as the 980s, when Song intended to retake the former Ordos prefectures
Ordos Desert
The Ordos Desert is a desert and steppe region lying on a plateau in the south of the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China . The soil of the Ordos is a mixture of clay and sand and, as a result, is poorly suited for agriculture. It extends over an area of...
of the late Tang Dynasty
Tang Dynasty
The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
, then held by the Tanguts. After the Tangut leader Li Jiqian
Li Jiqian
Li Jiqian resisted the Song empire and organized a rebellion in 984. He created a successful alliance with the Liao empire for military support. Li Jiqian arranged a peace agreement with the Song emperor, but violated the treaty himself...
died in 1004, the Tanguts under his successor Li Deming
Li Deming
Li Deming was the eldest son of Li Jiqian, the founder of the Western Xia dynasty. When his father died in battle in 1004, Li Deming became leader of the Tangut people, and over the next twenty years he considerably expanded the territory controlled by the Tanguts. In 1028 he named his son Li...
(r. 1005–1032) had initially attacked the Song, but later sought peaceful relations which brought economic benefits until 1038.
After non-Chinese Song patrol leader Li Jipeng (aka Zhao Baozhong) raided Xia's territory and destroyed some fortified settlements in 1034, the Tanguts under Li Yuanhao (1003–1048) retaliated. On September 12, 1034 the Tanguts raided Qingzhou in Huanqing Circuit, but later Li Yuanhao released Song officers and soldiers he had captured; by January 29, 1035 relations were restored when Li Yuanhao sent tribute of fifty horses to the Song court and requested a copy of a Buddhist canon
Buddhist texts
Buddhist texts can be categorized in a number of ways. The Western terms "scripture" and "canonical" are applied to Buddhism in inconsistent ways by Western scholars: for example, one authority refers to "scriptures and other canonical texts", while another says that scriptures can be categorized...
in return, which he received. Although he retained some unique Tangut customs and had a Tangut script
Tangut script
The Tangut script was a logographic writing system, used for writing the extinct Tangut language of the Western Xia Dynasty. According to the latest count, 5863 Tangut characters are known, excluding variants...
created, Li's administration followed the traditional Chinese model of bureaus
Three Departments and Six Ministries
The Three Departments and Six Ministries system was the main central administrative system adopted in ancient China. The system first took shape after the Western Han Dynasty , was officially instituted in Sui Dynasty , and matured during Tang Dynasty...
. Li proclaimed himself the first imperial ruler of Western Xia, ruling as Emperor Jingzong
Emperor Jingzong of Western Xia
Emperor Jingzong of Western Xia , born Li Yuanhao , or Tuoba Yuanhao , was the first emperor of the Western Xia Empire located in northwestern China, reigning from 1038 to 1048...
(r. 1038–1048), and on November 10, 1038 he sent an envoy to the Song capital in order to gain recognition for his new title as "Son of Blue Heaven
Emperor of China
The Emperor of China refers to any sovereign of Imperial China reigning between the founding of Qin Dynasty of China, united by the King of Qin in 221 BCE, and the fall of Yuan Shikai's Empire of China in 1916. When referred to as the Son of Heaven , a title that predates the Qin unification, the...
" and to cease paying tribute to Song to affirm his new status. The Xia began attacks on Song's borders which were repulsed by Song commander Lu Shouqin (fl.
Floruit
Floruit , abbreviated fl. , is a Latin verb meaning "flourished", denoting the period of time during which something was active...
1030–1050), and on January 9, 1039 the Song shut down its border markets and soon after a reward of 100,000 strings of coin was offered to anyone who could capture Emperor Jingzong. Although he won impressive victories in the initial phase of the war, Jingzong gained no additional territory for Western Xia by war's end in 1044, while both sides had lost tens of thousands of troops. Emperor Jingzong also conceded to the Song demand that he refer to himself as an inferior subject when addressing the Song, and that he accept Song ritualists to perform official ceremonies at his court. Throughout the war, the Song had maintained a number of fortified military outposts stretching some 480 km (298.3 mi) from the westernmost prefectures of Shaanxi
Shaanxi
' is a province in the central part of Mainland China, and it includes portions of the Loess Plateau on the middle reaches of the Yellow River in addition to the Qinling Mountains across the southern part of this province...
to Hedong
Hedong Commandery
Hedong Commandery was a historical region in ancient China.During the Qin and Han Dynasties, the Hedong Commandery was located in the area to the east of the Yellow River in Shanxi province . In Chapter one of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Guan Yu states that he is from Xieliang County in the...
in what is now Shanxi
Shanxi
' is a province in Northern China. Its one-character abbreviation is "晋" , after the state of Jin that existed here during the Spring and Autumn Period....
. Since the Song could not rely on water obstacle defenses in this region—like the Great Ditch of Hebei used against Liao—they instead garrisoned the wide expanse with a recorded 200 imperial battalions and 900 provincial and militia battalions by 1043.
Relations broke down once more in 1067 with the ascension of Emperor Shenzong of Song
Emperor Shenzong of Song
Emperor Shenzong of Song was the sixth emperor of the Chinese Song Dynasty. His personal name was Zhao Xu...
, and in the 1070s the Song had considerable success in capturing Tangut territory. A mood of frontier adventurism permeated Shenzong's court, as well as a desire to reclaim territories he felt belonged to him as the rightful ruler of China; when a Song general led an unprovoked attack on a Western Xia border town, Shenzong appeared at the border to commend the general himself. To punish the Western Xia and damage their economy, Emperor Shenzong also shut down all commercial border markets along the Song-Western Xia border. The scientist and statesman Shen Kuo
Shen Kuo
Shen Kuo or Shen Gua , style name Cunzhong and pseudonym Mengqi Weng , was a polymathic Chinese scientist and statesman of the Song Dynasty...
(1031–1095) was sent to Yanzhou (now Yan'an
Yan'an
Yan'an , is a prefecture-level city in the Shanbei region of Shaanxi province in China, administering several counties, including Zhidan County , which served as the Chinese communist capital before the city of Yan'an proper took that role....
, Shaanxi province) in 1080 to stave off Tangut military invasion. He successfully defended his fortified position, yet the new Grand Councillor Cai Que held him responsible for the death of a rival Song military officer and the decimation of that officer's forces; as a result, Shen Kuo was ousted from office and the state abandoned the projected land that Shen was able to defend.
When Empress Dowager Gao died in 1093, Emperor Zhezong of Song
Emperor Zhezong of Song
Emperor Zhezong was the seventh emperor of the Song Dynasty of China. His personal name was Zhao4 Xu1. He reigned from 1085 to 1100....
asserted himself at court by ousting the political conservatives led by Sima Guang
Sima Guang
Sīmǎ Guāng was a Chinese historian, scholar, and high chancellor of the Song Dynasty, jinshi 1038.-Life, profession, and works:...
, reinstating Wang Anshi
Wang Anshi
Wang Anshi was a Chinese economist, statesman, chancellor and poet of the Song Dynasty who attempted controversial, major socioeconomic reforms...
's reforms, and halting all negotiations with the Tanguts of the Western Xia. This resulted in continued armed conflict between the Song Dynasty and the Western Xia. In 1099, the Northern Song launched a campaign into Xining
Xining
Xining is the capital of Qinghai province, People's Republic of China, and the largest city on the Tibetan Plateau. It has 2,208,708 inhabitants at the 2010 census whom 1,198,304 live in the built up area made of 4 urban districts.-History:...
and Haidong (in modern Qinghai
Qinghai
Qinghai ; Oirat Mongolian: ; ; Salar:) is a province of the People's Republic of China, named after Qinghai Lake...
province), occupying territory that was controlled by the Gusiluo regime since the 10th century. By 1116, Song managed to acquire all of its territory and incorporated it into prefectures; the area became the westernmost frontier against the Western Xia.
Relations with Lý of Vietnam and border conflict
Background
For roughly a millenniumHistory of the Han Dynasty
The Han Dynasty , founded by the peasant rebel leader Liu Bang ,From the Shang to the Sui dynasties, Chinese rulers were referred to in later records by their posthumous names, while emperors of the Tang to Yuan dynasties were referred to by their temple names, and emperors of the Ming and Qing...
a series of Chinese dynasties
First Chinese domination (History of Vietnam)
The first Chinese domination is an early historical period in Vietnamese history, during which the Vietnamese people repeatedly combated Chinese expansion from the north. In 111 B.C. Chinese armies reconquered Vietnam and incorporated it into the expanding Han Empire. The Viet resisted the Chinese...
had controlled northern Vietnam
Chinese invasions of Vietnam
Chinese invasions of Vietnam have occurred throughout Vietnam's 5000-year history:* 1988: Johnson South Reef Skirmish* 1979-90: Sino-Vietnamese conflicts 1979-1990* 1979: Sino-Vietnamese War* 1974: Battle of the Paracel Islands...
, until the independence of the Ngô Dynasty
Ngô Dynasty
The Ngô dynasty was a dynasty in Vietnam.Around the year 930 AD, as Ngô Quyền rose to power, northern Vietnam was militarily occupied by Southern Han and was treated as an autonomous province and vassal state of China and was referred to as Giao Chỉ...
(939–967). Early Song Dynasty armies had fought and lost to the Early Lê Dynasty (980–1009) of Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
at the Battle of Bạch Đằng in 981. Subsequently the Vietnamese rebel Nùng Trí Cao
Nong Zhigao
Nong Zhigao is a hero admired by the Zhuang people. His father was the head of local Zhuang people. According to the History of the Song Dynasty: Guangyuan Zhou Man Zhuan , as he became an adult he followed his father as the head of local Zhuang people in Quảng Nguyên...
(1025–1053) attempted to establish his own frontier kingdom in 1042, 1048, and 1052, creating a disturbance on Song's southern border that prompted an invasion against Nùng Trí Cao's forces in the 1050s. This invasion resulted in the Song conquest of border regions inhabited by Tai peoples
Tai peoples
The Tai ethnicity refers collectively to the ethnic groups of southern China and Southeast Asia, stretching from Hainan to eastern India and from southern Sichuan to Laos, Thailand, and parts of Vietnam, which speak languages in the Tai family and share similar traditions and festivals, including...
and a border confrontation with the Lý Dynasty
Lý Dynasty
The Lý Dynasty , sometimes known as the Later Lý Dynasty , was a Vietnamese dynasty that began in 1009 when Lý Thái Tổ overthrew the Prior Lê Dynasty and ended in 1225 when the queen Lý Chiêu Hoàng was forced to abdicate the throne in favor of her husband, Trần Cảnh. They ruled Vietnam for a...
(1010–1225) that lasted from 1075 to 1077. The Song court's interest in maximizing the economic benefits of these frontier zones came into conflict with the Lý Dynasty, whose goal was to consolidate their peripheral fiefdoms. In the aftermath, an agreement was negotiated by both sides that fixed the borders; the resulting line of demarcation "would largely remain in place through to the present day", according to James A. Anderson, Associate Professor in the History Department at the University of North Carolina
University of North Carolina
Chartered in 1789, the University of North Carolina was one of the first public universities in the United States and the only one to graduate students in the eighteenth century...
.
Border hositilies
The Lý court had not intervened when the Song general Di QingDi Qing
Di Qing , style name Hanchen , was a military general of the Northern Song Dynasty. He was born to a poor family in Xihe, Fenzhou . He sported tattoos on his face and excelled in mounted archery...
(1008–1061) crushed the border rebellion of Nùng Trí Cao in 1053. During the two decades of relative regional peace that followed, the Lý observed the threat of Song expansion, as more Han Chinese
Han Chinese
Han Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and are the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92% of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98% of the population of the Republic of China , 78% of the population of Singapore, and about 20% of the...
settlers moved into areas which the Lý relied upon for the extraction of natural resources. Initially, a division of Di Qing's soldiers (originally from Shandong
Shandong
' is a Province located on the eastern coast of the People's Republic of China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history from the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River and served as a pivotal cultural and religious site for Taoism, Chinese...
) had settled the region, followed by a wave of Chinese settlers from north of the Yangzi River.
The Guangnan West Circuit Fiscal Commissioner, Wang Han (fl. 1043–1063), feared that Nùng Trí Cao's kinsmen Nùng Tông Đán intended to plunder the region after he crossed the Song border in 1057. Wang Han took a personal visit to Nùng Tông Đán's camp and spoke with Nùng Trí Cao's son, explaining that seeking "Interior Dependency" status would alienate them from the Lý court, but if they remained outside of China proper
China proper
China proper or Eighteen Provinces was a term used by Western writers on the Qing Dynasty to express a distinction between the core and frontier regions of China. There is no fixed extent for China proper, as many administrative, cultural, and linguistic shifts have occurred in Chinese history...
they could safely act as loyal frontier militia. Wang Han then sent a memorial to Emperor Renzong's
Emperor Renzong of Song
Emperor Renzong was the fourth emperor of the Song Dynasty of China. His personal name was Zhao Zhen . He reigned from 1022 to 1063. Renzong was the son of Emperor Zhenzong of Song. Despite his long reign of over 40 years, Renzong is not widely known...
(r. 1022–1063) court in 1060, advocating the policy agreed with the Nùng. The Song government rejected his proposal and made the Nùng communities (along with other ethnic groups) official dependents of Song imperial authority, and Nùng Tông Đán's request that the territories under his authority be incorporated into the Song Empire was granted in 1062. In 1059—six years before the Song court's New Policies under Chancellor Wang Anshi
Wang Anshi
Wang Anshi was a Chinese economist, statesman, chancellor and poet of the Song Dynasty who attempted controversial, major socioeconomic reforms...
(1021–1086) organized new self-sufficient militia
Militia
The term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. It is a polyseme with...
units throughout the empire and along the border with Đại Việt—the Lý Dynasty ruler Lý Thánh Tông
Lý Thánh Tông
Lý Thánh Tông was the posthumous title of the third emperor of the Lý dynasty of Vietnam. Like his father, he was considered as one of the most talented and benevolent kings in Vietnamese history.-Genius Crown Prince:...
reorganized northern frontier administrative units and raised new militias. This bolstered his kingdom's strength in a time of conflict with Champa
Champa
The kingdom of Champa was an Indianized kingdom that controlled what is now southern and central Vietnam from approximately the 7th century through to 1832.The Cham people are remnants...
(located in southern Vietnam).
In the spring of 1060, Giáp Đồng natives under the frontier prefectural leader Thàn Thiệu Thái—an imperial in-law to the Lý court through marriage alliance—raided the Song frontier for cattle and militia recruits. He succeeded in taking the Song military leader Yang Baocai hostage, and in autumn of 1060 Song troops were sent into the frontier to rescue the general but he was not found. The Song court appointed Yu Jing (余靖; 1000–1064) as a new military commissioner of the Guangnan region and charged him with the task of quelling the unrest caused by Thàn Thiệu Thái. Yu Jing also sent an agent to Champa to enlist Cham aid against the Song's enemies in Guangnan.
Tribute and intrigue
Yongzhou
Yongzhou is a prefecture-level city in the Hunan province of China.YongZhou is located in the central and south of China, on the southern side of Xiang River, which is formed by the confluence of the Xiao and Xiang rivers. Yongzhou is one of the four ancient counties in Hunan; it is 2000 years old...
to thank Song for putting down local rebellions and to negotiate terms of peace, they instructed their agents to gather intelligence on the alleged Champa alliance and the strength of Song's military presence in the Guangnan Western Circuit. Two Vietnamese envoys were permitted to offer tribute to the court of Renzong in Kaifeng, arriving on February 8, 1063 to deliver gifts, including nine tamed elephants
Asian Elephant
The Asian or Asiatic elephant is the only living species of the genus Elephas and distributed in Southeast Asia from India in the west to Borneo in the east. Three subspecies are recognized — Elephas maximus maximus from Sri Lanka, the Indian elephant or E. m. indicus from mainland Asia, and E. m....
. On March 30, 1063, Emperor Renzong died and was succeeded by Emperor Yingzong
Emperor Yingzong of Song
Emperor Yingzong was the fifth emperor of the Song Dynasty of China. His personal name was originally Zhao Zongshi but he later changed it to Zhao Shu. He reigned from 1063 to 1067...
(r.1063–1067); Vietnamese envoys arrived in Kaifeng again to congratulate Yingzong on his ascension, and on April 7, 1063, Yingzong sent gifts such as calligraphy works by Renzong to Vietnamese King Lý Thánh Tông. On the day that the Vietnamese envoy Lý Kế Tiên prepared to depart from Kaifeng back to Đại Việt, news arrived that Thàn Thiệu Thái had raided Song's Guangnan West Circuit again. Although a plea from a Guangnan official urged Kaifeng to take action, Yingzong left defenses up to local Guangnan forces and labeled Thàn Thiệu Thái as "reckless and mad" in an effort to disassociate him from the Lý court.
The minor Song official Lu Shen, a prefect in Guizhou
Guizhou
' is a province of the People's Republic of China located in the southwestern part of the country. Its provincial capital city is Guiyang.- History :...
, sent a message to Kaifeng in 1065 which reported that Nùng Tông Đán had apparently switched allegiance from Song to Lý, as well as united with the Quảng Nguyên chieftain Lưu Ký. When the now "mentally weak and distracted ruler" Yingzong—as Anderson describes him—received the report, he took no other action but to reassign Nùng Tông Đán with new honorific titles. The court took no action to resolve the problem, and Nùng Tông Đán later played a key role in the Song-Lý war of 1075–1077. The Song also gave official titles to other Vietnamese leaders despite their involvement in Nùng Trí Cao's rebellions and their pledged loyalty to Lưu Ký, the latter employed as a tribal official under King Lý Thánh Tông.
Yingzong died on January 8, 1067, and was replaced by Emperor Shenzong (r. 1067–1085), who like his father, heaped rewards on Vietnamese leaders but was more observant of the Vietnamese delegations. When Vietnamese envoys arrived in Kaifeng to congratulate Shenzong on his ascension, he sent lavish gifts to the Lý court, including a golden belt, silver ingots, 300 bolts of silk, two horses, a saddle inlaid with gold and silver plating, and on February 9, 1067 bestowed the Vietnamese ruler Lý Thánh Tông with the official title "King of the Southern Pacified Region" (Chinese
Chinese character
Chinese characters are logograms used in the writing of Chinese and Japanese , less frequently Korean , formerly Vietnamese , or other languages...
:南平王, pinyin
Pinyin
Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...
: nán píng wáng, Vietnamese
Vietnamese language
Vietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of 86% of Vietnam's population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese. It is also spoken as a second language by many ethnic minorities of Vietnam...
: Nam Bình Vương). Shenzong also countered Nùng Tông Đán's defection by recognizing his kinsman Nùng Trí Hội as the Nùng clan leader in 1069, giving him a title similar to Tông Đán's and command over Guihua prefecture (also known as Wuyang grotto settlement).
Frontier policy and war
In his New Policies sponsored by Shenzong, Wang Anshi enhanced central authority over Song's frontier administrations, increased militia activity, increased troop levels and war horses sent to the frontiers (including the border areas with Đại Việt), and actively sought loyal supporters in border regions who could heighten the pace of extraction of local resources for the state's disposal. Officials at court debated the merits or faults of Wang's policies, yet criticism of his reforms even appeared in Đại Việt, where the high officer Lý Thường Kiệt (1019–1105) publicly announced that Wang's policies were deliberate efforts to seize and control their border frontiers. Tensions between Song and Lý were critical, and in these conditions any sign of hostility had potential to ignite a war.Ly Nhan Tong
Lý Nhân Tông , given name Lý Càn Đức , was the fourth emperor of the Lý Dynasty, reigning over Đại Việt from 1072 to his death in 1127...
(r. 1072–1127) to prepare for war.
In the autumn of 1075, Nùng Tông Đán advanced into Song territory in Guangxi
Guangxi
Guangxi, formerly romanized Kwangsi, is a province of southern China along its border with Vietnam. In 1958, it became the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, a region with special privileges created specifically for the Zhuang people.Guangxi's location, in...
while a naval fleet commanded by Lý Thường Kiệt captured Qinzhou and Lianzhou prefectures. Lý Thường Kiệt calmed the apprehensions of the local Chinese populace, claiming that he was simply apprehending a rebel who took refuge in China and that the local Song authorities had refused to cooperate in detaining him. In the early spring of 1076, Thường Kiệt and Nùng Tông Đán defeated the Song militia of Yongzhou, and during a battle at Kunlun Pass
Kunlun Pass
Kunlun Pass is located in 59 kilometers northeast of Nanning, Guangxi.During the Second Sino-Japanese War, this pass was contended between the Japanese and the Chinese in the Battle of Kunlun Pass....
, their forces beheaded the Governor-General of Guangnan West Circuit, Zhang Shoujie (d. 1076). After a forty-two day siege, Yongzhou was breached and razed to the ground. When Song forces attempted to challenge Lý's forces, the latter retreated, with their spoils of war and thousands of prisoners.
Lý Thường Kiệt had fought a war with the Cham in 1069, and in 1076 Song called on the Khmer Empire
Khmer Empire
The Khmer Empire was one of the most powerful empires in Southeast Asia. The empire, which grew out of the former kingdom of Chenla, at times ruled over and/or vassalized parts of modern-day Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Burma, and Malaysia. Its greatest legacy is Angkor, the site of the capital city...
and Champa to go to war again in 1076. At the same time, the Song commander Guo Kui (1022–1088) led the combined Song force of approximately 100,000 men against Lý. The Song quickly regained Quảng Nguyên prefecture and in the process captured the resistance leader Lưu Ký. By 1077, the Song had destroyed two other Vietnamese armies and marched towards their capital at Thăng Long (modern Hanoi
Hanoi
Hanoi , is the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city. Its population in 2009 was estimated at 2.6 million for urban districts, 6.5 million for the metropolitan jurisdiction. From 1010 until 1802, it was the most important political centre of Vietnam...
). Song forces halted at the Nhu Nguyệt River (in modern Bac Ninh Province), where Lý Thường Kiệt had defensive ramparts built on the southern banks. However, Song forces broke through his defense line and their cavalry advanced to within several kilometers of the capital city.
The Vietnamese counterattacked and pushed Song forces back across the river while their coastal defenses distracted the Song navy. Lý Thường Kiệt also launched an offensive, but lost two Lý princes in the fighting at Kháo Túc River. The tropical climate and rampant disease severely weakened Song's military forces while the Lý court feared the result of a prolonged war so close to the capital. As a result, Thường Kiệt made peace overtures to the Song; the Song commander Guo Kui agreed to withdraw his troops, but kept five disputed regions of Quảng Nguyên (renamed Shun'anzhou or Thuận Châu), Tư Lang Châu, Môn Châu, Tô Mậu Châu, and Quảng Lăng. These areas now comprise most of modern Vietnam's Cao Bang Province
Cao Bang Province
Cao Bằng is a province of northeastern Vietnam. The province has borders with Hà Giang, Tuyên Quang, Bắc Kạn, and Lạng Sơn provinces within Vietnam. It also has common international border with Guangxi province of the People's Republic of China...
and Lang Son Province
Lạng Sơn Province
Lạng Sơn is a province in far northern Vietnam, bordering Guangxi province in China. Its capital is also called Lang Son, which is a strategically important town at the border with China and is northeast of Hanoi connected by rail and road...
. In 1082, after a long period of mutual isolation, King Lý Nhân Tông of Đại Việt returned Yong, Qin, and Lian prefectures back to Song authorities, along with their prisoners of war, and in return Song relinquished its control of four prefectures and the county of Đại Việt, including the Nùng clan's home of Quảng Nguyên. Further negotiations took place from July 6 to August 8, 1084 and were held at Song's Yongping garrison in southern Guangnan, where Lý's Director of Military Personnel Lê Van Thình (fl. 1075–1096) convinced Song to fix the two countries' borders between Quảng Nguyên and Guihua prefectures.
Partisans and factions, reformers and conservatives
Factional strife at court first became apparent during the 1040s, with a new state reform initiated by Fan Zhongyan
Fan Zhongyan
Fan Zhongyan , born in Wuxian , Suzhou , was a prominent politician and literary figure in Song dynasty China. He was also a strategist and educator...
(989–1052). Fan was a capable military leader (with successful battles in his record against the Tanguts of Xi-Xia) but as a minister of state he was known as an idealist, once saying that a well-minded official should be one that was "first in worrying about the world's troubles and last in enjoying its pleasures". When Fan rose to the seat of chancellor
Chancellor
Chancellor is the title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the Cancellarii of Roman courts of justice—ushers who sat at the cancelli or lattice work screens of a basilica or law court, which separated the judge and counsel from the...
, there was a growing opposition to him within the older and more conservative crowd. They disliked his pushing for reforms for the recruitment system, higher pay for minor local officials to discourage against corruption, and wider sponsorship programs to ensure that officials were drafted more on the basis of their intellect and character. However, his Qingli Reforms
Qingli Reforms
The Qingli Reforms also called Minor Reforms, took place in China’s Song Dynasty under the leadership of Fan Zhongyan and Ouyang Xiu. Taking place from 1043 to 1045, it was a short-lived attempt to introduce reforms into the traditional way of conducting governmental affairs in China...
were cancelled within a year's time (with Fan replaced as chancellor), since many older officials halfway through their careers were not keen on making changes that could affect their comfortably set positions.
Wang Anshi
Wang Anshi was a Chinese economist, statesman, chancellor and poet of the Song Dynasty who attempted controversial, major socioeconomic reforms...
(1021–1086). The new nineteen-year-old Emperor Shenzong
Emperor Shenzong of Song
Emperor Shenzong of Song was the sixth emperor of the Chinese Song Dynasty. His personal name was Zhao Xu...
(r. 1067–1085) had an instant liking of Wang Anshi when he submitted a long memorial
Memorial
A memorial is an object which serves as a focus for memory of something, usually a person or an event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or art objects such as sculptures, statues or fountains, and even entire parks....
to the throne that criticized the practices of state schools and the examination system itself. With Wang as his new chancellor, he quickly implemented Wang's New Policies, which evoked some heated reaction from the conservative base. Along with the Baojia system
Baojia system
The baojia system was an invention of Wang Anshi of the Song Dynasty, who created this community-based system of law enforcement and civil control that was included in his large reform of Chinese government from 1069-1076.-Imperial China:...
of a community-based law enforcement, the New Policies included:
- Low-cost loans for farmers and replaced the labor service with a tax instead, hoping this would ultimately help the workings of the entire economy and state (as he directly linked state income to the level of prosperity of rural peasants who owned farms, produced goods for the market, and paid the land tax). These government loans replaced the system of landlords offering their tenantsLeasehold estateA leasehold estate is an ownership of a temporary right to land or property in which a lessee or a tenant holds rights of real property by some form of title from a lessor or landlord....
private loans, which was prohibited under the new laws of Wang's reforms. - Government monopolies on tea, salt, and wine in order to raise state revenues (although this would now limit the merchant class).
- Instituting a more up-to-date land survey system in order to properly assess the land tax.
- Introduction of a local militia in order to lessen the budget of expenses paid for upholding the official standing army, which had grown dramatically to roughly 1 million soldiers by 1022.
- The creation of a new government bureau in 1073 called the Directorate of Weapons, which supervised the manufacture of armaments and ensured quality control.
- Introduction of the Finance Planning Commission, created in mind to speed up the reform process so that dissident Conservatives would have less time to react and oppose reforms.
- The poetry requirement of the civil service examination (introduced during the earlier Tang Dynasty) was scrapped in order to seek out men with more practical experience and knowledge.
Chinese classic texts
Chinese classic texts, or Chinese canonical texts, today often refer to the pre-Qin Chinese texts, especially the Neo-Confucian titles of Four Books and Five Classics , a selection of short books and chapters from the voluminous collection called the Thirteen Classics. All of these pre-Qin texts...
made into a standard and required reading for students hoping to pass the state examinations. This and other reforms of Wang's were too much for some officials to bear idly, as there were many administrative disagreements, along with many personal interests at stake. In any case, the rising conservative faction against the reformer Wang Anshi branded him as an inferior-intellect who was not up to par with their principles of governance (likewise, the reformers branded conservatives in the same labeled fashion). The conservatives criticized Wang's reforms as a means of curbing the influence of landholding families by diminishing their private wealth in favor of self-sufficient communal groups. The conservatives argued that the wealth of the landholding class should not be purposefully diminished by state programs, since the land holding class was the essential socio-economic group that produced China's scholar-officials, managers, merchants, and landlords.
Reminded of the earlier Fan Zhongyan, Wang was not about to allow ministers who opposed his reforms to have sway at court, and with his prowess (and perceived arrogance) was known as 'the bullheaded premier
Premier
Premier is a title for the head of government in some countries and states.-Examples by country:In many nations, "premier" is used interchangeably with "prime minister"...
'. He gathered to his side ministers who were loyal to his policies and cause, an elite social coalition known as the New Policies Group (新法, Xin Fa). He had many able and powerful supporters, such as the scientist and statesman Shen Kuo
Shen Kuo
Shen Kuo or Shen Gua , style name Cunzhong and pseudonym Mengqi Weng , was a polymathic Chinese scientist and statesman of the Song Dynasty...
. Ministers of state who were seen as obstructive to the implementation of Wang's reforms were not all dismissed from the capital to other places (since the emperor needed some critical feedback), but many were. A more extreme example would be "obstructionist" officials sent far to the south to administer regions that were largely tropical, keeping in mind that northern Chinese were often susceptible to malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
found in the deep south of China. Even the celebrated poet and government official Su Shi
Su Shi
Su Shi , was a writer, poet, artist, calligrapher, pharmacologist, gastronome, and statesman of the Song Dynasty, and one of the major poets of the Song era. His courtesy name was Zizhan and his pseudonym was Dongpo Jushi , and he is often referred to as Su Dongpo...
was persecuted in 1079 when he was arrested and forced into five weeks of interrogation. Finally, he confessed under guarded watch that he had slandered the emperor in his poems. One of them read:
 |
An old man of seventy, sickle at his waist, Feels guilty the spring mountain bamboo and bracken are sweet. It's not that the music of Shao has made him lose his sense of taste. It's just that he's eaten his food for three months without salt. |
 |
Hubei
' Hupeh) is a province in Central China. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Lake Dongting...
Province. More than thirty of his associates were also given minor punishments for not reporting his slanderous poems to authorities before they were widely circulated to the educated public.
Emperor Shenzong died in 1085, an abrupt death since he was in his mid 30s. His successor Emperor Zhezong of Song
Emperor Zhezong of Song
Emperor Zhezong was the seventh emperor of the Song Dynasty of China. His personal name was Zhao4 Xu1. He reigned from 1085 to 1100....
was only ten years old when he ascended to the throne, so his powerful grandmother served as regent
Regent
A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...
over him. She disliked Wang's reforms from the beginning, and sought to appoint more Conservative officials at court who would agree to oppose the Reformists. Her greatest political ally was Sima Guang
Sima Guang
Sīmǎ Guāng was a Chinese historian, scholar, and high chancellor of the Song Dynasty, jinshi 1038.-Life, profession, and works:...
(1019–1086), who was made the next Chancellor. Undoing what Wang had implemented, Sima dismissed the New Policies, and forced the same treatment upon Reformers that Wang had earlier meted out to his opponents: dismissal to lower or frontier posts of governance, or even exile. However, there was still mounted opposition to Sima Guang, as many had favored some of the New Policies, including the substitution of tax instead of forced labor service to the state. Sure enough, when Emperor Zhezong's grandmother died in 1093, Zhezong was quick to sponsor the Reformists like his predecessor Shenzong had done. The Conservatives once more were ousted from political dominance at court. When Zhezong suddenly died in his twenties, his younger brother Emperor Huizong of Song (r. 1100–1125) succeeded him, and also supported the Reformers at court. Huizong banned the writing of Sima Guang and his lackeys while elevating Wang Anshi to near revered status, having a statue of Wang erected in a Confucian temple alongside a statue of Mencius
Mencius
Mencius was a Chinese philosopher who was arguably the most famous Confucian after Confucius himself.-Life:Mencius, also known by his birth name Meng Ke or Ko, was born in the State of Zou, now forming the territory of the county-level city of Zoucheng , Shandong province, only thirty kilometres ...
. To further this image of Wang as a great and honorable statesman, printed and painted pictures of him were circulated throughout the country. Yet this cycle of revenge and partisanship continued after Zhezong and Huizong, as Reformers and Conservatives continued their infighting. Huizong's successor, Emperor Gaozong of Song
Emperor Gaozong of Song
Emperor Gaozong , born Zhao Gou, was the tenth emperor of the Song Dynasty of China, and the first emperor of the Southern Song. He reigned from 1127 to 1162. He fled south after the Jurchens overran Kaifeng in the Jingkang Incident, hence the beginning of the Southern Song dynasty 1127–1279...
, abolished once more the New Policies, and favored ministers of the Conservative faction at court.
Jingkang Incident
Jurchens
The Jurchens were a Tungusic people who inhabited the region of Manchuria until the 17th century, when they adopted the name Manchu...
the Song Dynasty was for centuries engaged in a stand-off against the Western Xia
Western Xia
The Western Xia Dynasty or the Tangut Empire, was known to the Tanguts and the Tibetans as Minyak.The state existed from 1038 to 1227 AD in what are now the northwestern Chinese provinces of Ningxia, Gansu, eastern Qinghai, northern Shaanxi, northeastern Xinjiang, southwest Inner Mongolia, and...
and the Khitan
Khitan people
thumb|250px|Khitans [[Eagle hunting|using eagles to hunt]], painted during the Chinese [[Song Dynasty]].The Khitan people , or Khitai, Kitan, or Kidan, were a nomadic Mongolic people, originally located at Mongolia and Manchuria from the 4th century...
Liao Dynasty
Liao Dynasty
The Liao Dynasty , also known as the Khitan Empire was an empire in East Asia that ruled over the regions of Manchuria, Mongolia, and parts of northern China proper between 9071125...
. This balance was disrupted when the Song Dynasty developed a military alliance with the Jurchens for the purpose of annihilating the Liao Dynasty. This balance of power disrupted, the Jurchens then turned on the Song Dynasty, resulting in the fall of the Northern Song and the subsequent establishment of the Southern Song.
During the reign of Huizong, the Jurchen tribe to the north (once subordinates to the Liao), revolted against their Khitan masters. The Jurchen community already had a reputation of great economic clout in their own region of the Liao and Sungari rivers. They were positioned in an ideal location for horse raising, and were known to muster ten thousand horses a year to sell annually to the Khitans of the Liao Dynasty. They even had a martial history of being pirates, in the 1019 Toi invasion
Toi invasion
The Toi invasion was the invasion of northern Kyūshū by Jurchen pirates in 1019. Toi meant barbarian in the Korean language at the time....
of the Heian
Heian period
The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. The period is named after the capital city of Heian-kyō, or modern Kyōto. It is the period in Japanese history when Buddhism, Taoism and other Chinese influences were at their height...
Japanese islands in modern-day Iki Province
Iki Province
was a province of Japan in the area of Nagasaki Prefecture. The province which occupied the entire area of Iki Island. It is also known as .- Political History :...
, Tsushima Province
Tsushima Province
was an old province of Japan on Tsushima Island which occupied the area corresponding to modern-day Tsushima, Nagasaki. It was sometimes called .-Political History:...
, and Hakata Bay
Hakata Bay
Hakata Bay is a bay in the northwestern part of Fukuoka city, on the Japanese island of Kyūshū. It faces the Tsushima Strait, and features beaches and a port, though parts of the bay have been reclaimed in the expansion of the city of Fukuoka...
. From the Jurchen Wanyan clan, a prominent leader Wanyan Aguda
Wanyan Aguda
Emperor Taizu of Jin was Emperor of Jin from January 28, 1115 to September 19, 1123.He was the chieftain of the Jurchen Wanyan tribe, founder and first emperor of the Jin Dynasty . He was the younger brother of Wanyan Wuyashu...
(1068–1123) challenged Liao authority, establishing their own Jin Dynasty (or 'Golden Dynasty') in 1115. The Song government took notice of the political dissidence of the Jurchens in Liao's territory, as Council of State Tong Guan
Tong Guan
Tong Guan , style name Daofu , was a court eunuch, military general, political adviser, and Council of State to Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty. In the Water Margin, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, Tong Guan is featured as an antagonist and enemy of the 108...
(1054–1126) persuaded the emperor to ally with the Jurchens against the Liao . The two nations secretly forged the Alliance on the Sea
Alliance on the Sea
The Alliance on the Sea was a political alliance in Chinese history between the Song and Jin Dynasties in the early 12th century against the Liao Dynasty. The alliance was negotiated from 1115 to 1123 by envoys who crossed the Bohai Sea, and is also called the Alliance Conducted at Sea...
, so-named because it was negotiated by envoys who crossed the Bohai Sea
Bohai Sea
Bohai Sea , also known as Bohai Gulf, Bohai, or Bo Hai, is the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea on the coast of Northeastern and North China. It is approximately 78,000 km2 Bohai Sea , also known as Bohai Gulf, Bohai, or Bo Hai, is the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea on the coast of...
, and agreed to jointly invade the Liao, and if successful, divide up Liao territory with the Sixteen Prefectures given to the Song.
In 1121-23, Song forces fared badly against the Liao, but the Jin succeeded in driving the Liao to Central Asia. Through the campaign, the Jurchens discovered weaknesses about the Song military based in the north (as the Chinese for so long had been sending tribute to the Liao Dynasty instead of actually fighting them). Song forces had failed to make a joint attack in a siege with the Jurchens, who viewed the Song generals as incompetent. Banking on the possibility that the Song were weak enough to be destroyed, the Jurchens made a sudden and unprovoked attack against the Song Dynasty in the north. Soon enough, even the capital at Kaifeng was under siege by Jin forces, only staved off when an enormous bribe was handed over to them. There was also an effective use of Song Chinese war machines in the defense of Kaifeng in 1126, as it was recorded that 500 catapult
Catapult
A catapult is a device used to throw or hurl a projectile a great distance without the aid of explosive devices—particularly various types of ancient and medieval siege engines. Although the catapult has been used since ancient times, it has proven to be one of the most effective mechanisms during...
s hurling debris were used. During the siege of Taiyuan
Taiyuan
Taiyuan is the capital and largest city of Shanxi province in North China. At the 2010 census, it had a total population of 4,201,591 inhabitants on 6959 km² whom 3,212,500 are urban on 1,460 km². The name of the city literally means "Great Plains", referring to the location where the Fen River...
, the Jin employed 30 catapults and over fifty carts protected by rawhide and sheets of iron plating so that Jin troops could be ferried to the walls safely to fill in Taiyuan city's defensive moat
Moat
A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that surrounds a castle, other building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices...
. The eunuch general Tong Guan, who had initially urged for an alliance with the Jurchens, was blamed for causing the war. He was eventually executed by Emperor Qinzong of Song
Emperor Qinzong of Song
Emperor Qinzong was the ninth emperor of the Song Dynasty of China, and the last emperor of the Northern Song. His personal name was Zhao Huan. He reigned from January 1126 to January 1127....
(r. 1126–1127) after Huizong abdicated the throne to him.
Siege tower
A siege tower is a specialized siege engine, constructed to protect assailants and ladders while approaching the defensive walls of a fortification. The tower was often rectangular with four wheels with its height roughly equal to that of the wall or sometimes higher to allow archers to stand on...
s taller than Kaifeng's walls in order to lob incendiary bombs into the city. The besieged city was captured by the Jurchens in less than two months. Three thousand members of the Emperor's court were taken as captives, including Huizong and many of his relatives, craftsmen, engineers, goldsmiths, silversmiths, blacksmiths, weavers and tailors, Daoist priests, and female entertainers to label some. The mechanical clock tower
Clock tower
A clock tower is a tower specifically built with one or more clock faces. Clock towers can be either freestanding or part of a church or municipal building such as a town hall. Some clock towers are not true clock towers having had their clock faces added to an already existing building...
designed by Su Song
Su Song
Su Song was a renowned Chinese polymath who specialized himself as a statesman, astronomer, cartographer, horologist, pharmacologist, mineralogist, zoologist, botanist, mechanical and architectural engineer, poet, antiquarian, and ambassador of the Song Dynasty .Su Song was the engineer of a...
and ereceted in 1094 was also disassembled and its components carted back north, along with many clock-making millwright
Millwright
A millwright is a craftsman or tradesman engaged with the construction and maintenance of machinery.Early millwrights were specialist carpenters who erected machines used in agriculture, food processing and processing lumber and paper...
s and maintenance engineers that would cause a setback in technical advances for the Song court. According to the contemporary Xia Shaozeng, other war booty included 20,000 fire arrow
Fire Arrow
Fire arrows are an early form of gun powder rocket which were attached to a stick. The Chinese are credited with the first use of fire arrows in a military application, they may have developed fire arrows from their use of fireworks.- Design :...
s that were handed over to the Jurchens upon taking the city.
After capturing Kaifeng, the Jurchens went on to conquer the rest of northern China
Northern and southern China
Northern China and southern China are two approximate regions within China. The exact boundary between these two regions has never been precisely defined...
, while the Song Chinese court fled south. They took up temporary residence at Nanjing
Nanjing
' is the capital of Jiangsu province in China and has a prominent place in Chinese history and culture, having been the capital of China on several occasions...
, where a surviving prince was named Emperor Gaozong of Song
Emperor Gaozong of Song
Emperor Gaozong , born Zhao Gou, was the tenth emperor of the Song Dynasty of China, and the first emperor of the Southern Song. He reigned from 1127 to 1162. He fled south after the Jurchens overran Kaifeng in the Jingkang Incident, hence the beginning of the Southern Song dynasty 1127–1279...
in 1127. Jin Dynasty forces halted at the Yangzi River, but staged continual raids south of the river until a later boundary was fixed at the Huai River
Huai River
The Huai River is a major river in China. The Huai River is located about mid-way between the Yellow River and Yangtze River, the two largest rivers in China, and like them runs from west to east...
further north. With the border fixed at the Huai, the Song government would promote an immigration policy of repopulating and resettling territories north of the Yangzi River, since vast tracts of vacant land between the Yangzi and Huai were open for landless peasants found in Jiangsu
Jiangsu
' is a province of the People's Republic of China, located along the east coast of the country. The name comes from jiang, short for the city of Jiangning , and su, for the city of Suzhou. The abbreviation for this province is "苏" , the second character of its name...
, Zhejiang
Zhejiang
Zhejiang is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. The word Zhejiang was the old name of the Qiantang River, which passes through Hangzhou, the provincial capital...
, Jiangxi
Jiangxi
' is a southern province in the People's Republic of China. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze River in the north into hillier areas in the south, it shares a border with Anhui to the north, Zhejiang to the northeast, Fujian to the east, Guangdong to the south, Hunan to the west, and Hubei to...
, and Fujian
Fujian
' , formerly romanised as Fukien or Huguing or Foukien, is a province on the southeast coast of mainland China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, and Guangdong to the south. Taiwan lies to the east, across the Taiwan Strait...
provinces of the south.
A new capital and peace treaty
In 1129, Emperor Gaozong designated the site at HangzhouHangzhou
Hangzhou , formerly transliterated as Hangchow, is the capital and largest city of Zhejiang Province in Eastern China. Governed as a sub-provincial city, and as of 2010, its entire administrative division or prefecture had a registered population of 8.7 million people...
(known then as Lin'an) to be the temporary settlement of the court, but it was not until 1132 that it was declared the new Song capital. Hangzhou and Nanjing were devastated by the Jin Dynasty raids; both cities were heavily repopulated with northern refugees who outnumbered the remaining original inhabitants. Hangzhou was chosen not only for its natural scenic beauty, but for the surrounding topographic barriers of lakes and muddy rice-fields that gave it defensive potential against northern armies comprising mostly cavalry. Yet it was viewed by the court as only a temporary capital while the Song emperors planned to retake Kaifeng. However, the rapid growth of the city from the 12th century to the 13th necessitated long term goals of residency. In 1133 the modest palatial residence of the imperial family was improved upon from a simple provincial lodging to one that at least accommodated strolls with new covered alleyways to deflect the rain. In 1148 the walls of the small palace compound were finally extended to the southeast, yet this was another marginal improvement.
Huainan
Huainan is a prefecture-level city with 2,334,000 inhabitants in central Anhui Province, People’s Republic of China. It borders the provincial capital of Hefei to the south, Lu’an to the southwest, Fuyang to the west, Bozhou to the northwest, Bengbu to the northeast and Chuzhou to the east.Its...
(between the Yangzi and Huai
Huai River
The Huai River is a major river in China. The Huai River is located about mid-way between the Yellow River and Yangtze River, the two largest rivers in China, and like them runs from west to east...
rivers) became a new borderland and battleground between Song and Jin from 1128 to 1141, displacing hundreds of thousands of families who had lived there for generations. The Southern Song deployed several military commanders, among them Yue Fei
Yue Fei
Yue Fei , style name Pengju, was a military general of the Southern Song Dynasty. His ancestral home was in Xiaoti, Yonghe Village, Tangyin, Xiangzhou, Henan...
and Han Shizhong
Han Shizhong
Han Shizhong was a Chinese general of the late Northern Song Dynasty and the early Southern Song Dynasty. He dedicated his whole life to serving the Song Dynasty, and performed many legendary deeds. It is said that he had scars all over his body and, by the time he retired, there were only four...
, to resist the Jin as well as recapture territory, which proved successful at times. Yue Fei in particular had been preparing to recapture Kaifeng
Kaifeng
Kaifeng , known previously by several names , is a prefecture-level city in east-central Henan province, Central China. Nearly 5 million people live in the metropolitan area...
(or Bianjing as the city was known during the Song period), the former capital of the Song dynasty and the then southern capital of the Jin Dynasty, after a streak of uninterrupted military victories.
However, the possible defeat of the Jurchens threatened the power of the new emperor of the Southern Song, Gaozong
Emperor Gaozong of Song
Emperor Gaozong , born Zhao Gou, was the tenth emperor of the Song Dynasty of China, and the first emperor of the Southern Song. He reigned from 1127 to 1162. He fled south after the Jurchens overran Kaifeng in the Jingkang Incident, hence the beginning of the Southern Song dynasty 1127–1279...
and his premier Qin Hui
Qin Hui (Song Dynasty)
Qin Hui or Qin Kuai was a Chancellor of the Song Dynasty in China, who is widely regarded as a traitor of the Han race for his part in the political execution of General Yue Fei...
. The reason for this was that Qinzong
Emperor Qinzong of Song
Emperor Qinzong was the ninth emperor of the Song Dynasty of China, and the last emperor of the Northern Song. His personal name was Zhao Huan. He reigned from January 1126 to January 1127....
, the last emperor of the Northern Song was living in Jin-imposed exile
Exile
Exile means to be away from one's home , while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened with imprisonment or death upon return...
in Manchuria
Manchuria
Manchuria is a historical name given to a large geographic region in northeast Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria usually falls entirely within the People's Republic of China, or is sometimes divided between China and Russia. The region is commonly referred to as Northeast...
and had a good chance of being recalled to the throne should the Jin Dynasty be destroyed. Although Yue Fei had penetrated into enemy territory as far as Luoyang
Luoyang
Luoyang is a prefecture-level city in western Henan province of Central China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyang to the south, Sanmenxia to the west, Jiyuan to the north, and Jiaozuo to the northeast.Situated on the central plain of...
, he was ordered to head back to the capital and halt his campaign. Emperor Gaozong signed the Treaty of Shaoxing
Treaty of Shaoxing
The Treaty of Shaoxing is the agreement which ended the conflicts between the Jin Dynasty and Southern Song Dynasty. It also legally drew up the boundaries of the two countries and forcing the Song Dynasty to renounce all claims to its former territories north of the Huai river...
in 1141 that fixed the borders at the Huai River, as well as conceded territory regained through the efforts of Yue Fei, while Yue was killed during imprisonment. As part of the treaty, the Song were also forced to pay tribute to the Jin Dynasty, much how it did to the previous Liao Dynasty. With the treaty of Shaoxing, hostilities ceased between the Jin and Song dynasties for the next two decades. In the meantime, Emperor Gaozong negotiated with the Jin over his mother's ransom while he commissioned a symbolic art project about her, the Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute
Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute
Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute are a series of Chinese songs and poems about the life of Han Dynasty poet Cai Wenji, the songs were composed by Liu Shang, a poet of the middle Tang Dynasty...
, originally based upon the life of Cai Wenji
Cai Wenji
Cai Wenji , also known as Cai Yan, was a Han Dynasty poet and composer. She was the daughter of Cai Yong, also a musician. Her style name was originally Zhaoji, but it was changed to Wenji during the Jin Dynasty to avoid a naming conflict with Sima Zhao.She spent part of her life as a prisoner of...
(b. 177). Gaozong's mother was eventually released and brought south, but Qinzong was never freed from his confinement in the north.
Decades after Yue's death, the later Emperor Xiaozong of Song
Emperor Xiaozong of Song
Emperor Xiaozong was the eleventh emperor of the Song Dynasty of China, and the second emperor of the Southern Song. His personal name was Zhao Shen. He reigned from 1162 to 1189. His temple name means "Filial Ancestor"....
honored Yue Fei as a national hero in 1162, providing him proper burial and memorial of a shrine
Shrine
A shrine is a holy or sacred place, which is dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, daemon or similar figure of awe and respect, at which they are venerated or worshipped. Shrines often contain idols, relics, or other such objects associated with the figure being venerated....
. As a means to shame those who had pressed for his execution (Qin Hui and his wife), iron statues of them were crafted to kneel before the tomb of Yue Fei, located at the West Lake
West Lake
Xī Hú is a famous fresh water lake located in the historic center of Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province in eastern China. The lake is divided by the causeways of Sū Tí , Bái Tí , and Yánggōng Tí...
in Hangzhou
Hangzhou
Hangzhou , formerly transliterated as Hangchow, is the capital and largest city of Zhejiang Province in Eastern China. Governed as a sub-provincial city, and as of 2010, its entire administrative division or prefecture had a registered population of 8.7 million people...
.
China's first standing navy
Chola Dynasty
The Chola dynasty was a Tamil dynasty which was one of the longest-ruling in some parts of southern India. The earliest datable references to this Tamil dynasty are in inscriptions from the 3rd century BC left by Asoka, of Maurya Empire; the dynasty continued to govern over varying territory until...
in medieval India had waned and declined, Chinese sailors and seafarers began to increase their own maritime activity in South East Asia and into the Indian Ocean. Even during the earlier Northern Song period, when it was written in Tamil
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
inscriptions under the reign of Rajendra Chola I
Rajendra Chola I
Rajendra Chola I was the son of Rajaraja Chola I and was one of the greatest rulers of Tamil Chola dynasty of India. He succeeded his father in 1014 CE as the Chola emperor...
that Srivijaya
Srivijaya
Srivijaya was a powerful ancient thalassocratic Malay empire based on the island of Sumatra, modern day Indonesia, which influenced much of Southeast Asia. The earliest solid proof of its existence dates from the 7th century; a Chinese monk, I-Tsing, wrote that he visited Srivijaya in 671 for 6...
had been completely taken in 1025 by Chola's naval strength, the succeeding king of Srivijaya managed to send tribute to the Chinese Northern Song court in 1028. Much later, in 1077, the Indian Chola ruler Kulothunga Chola I
Kulothunga Chola I
Kō Rājakēsarivarman Abaya Kulōthunga Chōla was one of the greatest kings of the Chola Empire. He was one of the sovereigns who bore the title Kulottunga, literally meaning the exalter of his race.-Early life:...
(who the Chinese called Ti-hua-kia-lo) sent a trade embassy to the court of Emperor Shenzong of Song
Emperor Shenzong of Song
Emperor Shenzong of Song was the sixth emperor of the Chinese Song Dynasty. His personal name was Zhao Xu...
, and made lucrative profits in selling goods to China. There were other tributary payers from other regions of the world as well. The Fatimid
Fatimid
The Fatimid Islamic Caliphate or al-Fāṭimiyyūn was a Berber Shia Muslim caliphate first centered in Tunisia and later in Egypt that ruled over varying areas of the Maghreb, Sudan, Sicily, the Levant, and Hijaz from 5 January 909 to 1171.The caliphate was ruled by the Fatimids, who established the...
-era Egyptian
Egyptians
Egyptians are nation an ethnic group made up of Mediterranean North Africans, the indigenous people of Egypt.Egyptian identity is closely tied to geography. The population of Egypt is concentrated in the lower Nile Valley, the small strip of cultivable land stretching from the First Cataract to...
sea captain Domiyat traveled to a Buddhist site of pilgrimage in Shandong
Shandong
' is a Province located on the eastern coast of the People's Republic of China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history from the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River and served as a pivotal cultural and religious site for Taoism, Chinese...
in 1008, where he presented the Chinese Emperor Zhenzong of Song
Emperor Zhenzong of Song
Emperor Zhenzong was the third emperor of the Song Dynasty of China. He reigned from 997 to 1022. Zhenzong was the third son of Emperor Taizong. His personal name was Zhao Heng and his temple name Zhenzong means "True Ancestor".Zhenzong's reign was noted for the consolidation of power and the...
with gifts from his ruling Imam
Imam
An imam is an Islamic leadership position, often the worship leader of a mosque and the Muslim community. Similar to spiritual leaders, the imam is the one who leads Islamic worship services. More often, the community turns to the mosque imam if they have a religious question...
Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah
Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah
Abu ‘Ali Mansur Tāriqu l-Ḥākim, called Al-Hakim bi Amr al-Lāh , was the sixth Fatimid caliph and 16th Ismaili imam .- History :...
, establishing diplomatic relations between Egypt and China that had been lost during the collapse of the Tang Dynasty
Tang Dynasty
The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
in 907 (while the Fatimid state was established three years later in 910). During the Northern Song Dynasty, Quanzhou
Quanzhou
Quanzhou is a prefecture-level city in Fujian province, People's Republic of China. It borders all other prefecture-level cities in Fujian but two and faces the Taiwan Strait...
was already a bustling port of call visited by a plethora of different foreigers, from Muslim Arabs, Persians, Egyptians, Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
Indians, Middle-Eastern Jews
Kaifeng Jews
The Kaifeng Jews are members of a small Jewish community that has existed in Kaifeng, in the Henan province of China, for hundreds of years. Jews in modern China have traditionally called themselves Youtai in Mandarin Chinese which is also the predominant contemporary Chinese language term for...
, Nestorian Christians from the Near East
Near East
The Near East is a geographical term that covers different countries for geographers, archeologists, and historians, on the one hand, and for political scientists, economists, and journalists, on the other...
, etc. Muslims
History of Islam in China
The History of Islam in China began when four Sahabas- Sa'ad ibn abi Waqqas , Wahb Abu Kabcha, Jafar ibn Abu Talib and Jahsh preached in 616/17 and onwards in China after coming from Chittagong-Kamrup-Manipur route after sailing from Abyssinia in 615/16...
from foreign nations dominated the import and export industry (see Islam during the Song Dynasty
Islam during the Song Dynasty
The change in dynasty in China from the Tang to the dynasties that included the Song Dynasty did not greatly interrupt the trends of Muslims established during the Tang.-Islam continues to increase its influence:...
). To regulate this enormous commercial center, in 1087 the Northern Song government established an office in Quanzhou for the sole purpose of handling maritime affairs and commercial transactions. In this multicultural environment there were many opportunities for subjects in the empire of foreign descent, such as the (Arab or Persian) Muslim Pu Shougeng, the Commissioner of Merchant Shipping for Quanzhou between 1250 and 1275. Pu Shougeng had gained his reputable position by helping the Chinese destroy pirate forces that plagued the area, and so was lavished with gifts and appraisal from Chinese merchants and officials. Quanzhou soon rivaled Guangzhou
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
(the greatest maritime port of the earlier Tang Dynasty) as a major trading center during the late Northern Song. However, Guangzhou had not fully lost its importance. The medieval Arab maritime captain Abu Himyarite from Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
toured Guangzhou in 993, and was an avid visitor to China. There were other notable international seaports in China during the Song period as well, including Xiamen
Xiamen
Xiamen , also known as Amoy , is a major city on the southeast coast of the People's Republic of China. It is administered as a sub-provincial city of Fujian province with an area of and population of 3.53 million...
(or Amoy).
Hangzhou
Hangzhou , formerly transliterated as Hangchow, is the capital and largest city of Zhejiang Province in Eastern China. Governed as a sub-provincial city, and as of 2010, its entire administrative division or prefecture had a registered population of 8.7 million people...
, massive numbers of people from the north. Unlike the flat plains of the north, the mountainous terrain riddled with lakes and rivers in southern China is largely a hindrance and inhospitable to widespread agriculture. Therefore, the Southern Song took on a unique maritime presence that was largely unseen in earlier dynasties, grown out of the need to secure importation of foreign resources. Commercial cities (located along the coast and by internal rivers), backed by patronage of the state, dramatically increased shipbuilding
Shipbuilding
Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to before recorded history.Shipbuilding and ship repairs, both...
activity (funding harbor
Harbor
A harbor or harbour , or haven, is a place where ships, boats, and barges can seek shelter from stormy weather, or else are stored for future use. Harbors can be natural or artificial...
improvements, warehouse
Warehouse
A warehouse is a commercial building for storage of goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial areas of cities and towns. They usually have loading docks to load and unload...
construction, and navigation beacon
Beacon
A beacon is an intentionally conspicuous device designed to attract attention to a specific location.Beacons can also be combined with semaphoric or other indicators to provide important information, such as the status of an airport, by the colour and rotational pattern of its airport beacon, or of...
s). Navigation
Navigation
Navigation is the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another. It is also the term of art used for the specialized knowledge used by navigators to perform navigation tasks...
at sea was made easier by the invention of the compass
Compass
A compass is a navigational instrument that shows directions in a frame of reference that is stationary relative to the surface of the earth. The frame of reference defines the four cardinal directions – north, south, east, and west. Intermediate directions are also defined...
and Shen Kuo
Shen Kuo
Shen Kuo or Shen Gua , style name Cunzhong and pseudonym Mengqi Weng , was a polymathic Chinese scientist and statesman of the Song Dynasty...
's treatise of the 11th century on the concept of true north
True north
True north is the direction along the earth's surface towards the geographic North Pole.True geodetic north usually differs from magnetic north , and from grid north...
(with magnetic declination towards the North Pole
North Pole
The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is, subject to the caveats explained below, defined as the point in the northern hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface...
). With military defense and economic policy in mind, the Southern Song Dynasty established China's first standing navy
Navy
A navy is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake- or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions...
. China had a long naval history before that point (example, Battle of Chibi in 208), and even during the Northern Song era there were concerns with naval matters, as seen in examples such as the Chinese official Huang Huaixin of the Xining Reign (1068–1077) outlining a plan of employing a drydock for repair of 'imperial dragon boats' (see Technology section below). Already during the Northern Song Dynasty, the Chinese had established fortified trade bases in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, a noted interest of the court to expand China's military power and economic influence abroad. Provincial armies in the Northern Song era also maintained naval river units. However, it was the Southern Song court that was the first to create a large, permanent standing naval institution for China in 1132. The new headquarters of the Southern Song Chinese admiral
Admiral
Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet . It is usually abbreviated to "Adm" or "ADM"...
ty was based at Dinghai, the office labeled as the Yanhai Zhizhi Shisi (Imperial Commissariat for the Control and Organization of Coastal Areas). Even as far back as 1129 officials proposed ambitious plans to conquer Korea with a new navy and use Korea as a base for launching invasions into Jin territory, but this scheme was never achieved and was of secondary importance to maintaining defense along the fluctuating border with Jin.
Warship
A warship is a ship that is built and primarily intended for combat. Warships are usually built in a completely different way from merchant ships. As well as being armed, warships are designed to withstand damage and are usually faster and more maneuvrable than merchant ships...
s for watchtowers. Indeed, the court administration at Hangzhou lived up to this ideal, and were successful for a time in employing their navy to defend their interests against an often hostile neighbor to the north. In his Science and Civilization in China series, Joseph Needham
Joseph Needham
Noel Joseph Terence Montgomery Needham, CH, FRS, FBA , also known as Li Yuese , was a British scientist, historian and sinologist known for his scientific research and writing on the history of Chinese science. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1941, and as a fellow of the British...
writes:
From a total of 11 squadrons and 3,000 men [the Song navy] rose in one century to 20 squadrons totalling 52,000 men, with its main base near Shanghai. The regular striking force could be supported at need by substantial merchantmen; thus in the campaign of 1161 some 340 ships of this kind participated in the battles on the Yangtze. The age was one of continual innovation; in 1129 trebuchets throwing gunpowder bombs were decreed standard equipment on all warships, between 1132 and 1183 a great number of treadmill-operated paddle-wheel craft, large and small, were built, including stern-wheelers and ships with as many as 11 paddle-wheels a side (the invention of the remarkable engineer Kao Hsuan), and in 1203 some of these were armored with iron plates (to the design of another outstanding shipwright Chhin Shih-Fu)...In sum, the navy of the Southern Sung held off the [Jurchen Jin] and then the Mongols for nearly two centuries, gaining complete control of the East China Sea.
During the reign of Emperor Xiaozong of Song
Emperor Xiaozong of Song
Emperor Xiaozong was the eleventh emperor of the Song Dynasty of China, and the second emperor of the Southern Song. His personal name was Zhao Shen. He reigned from 1162 to 1189. His temple name means "Filial Ancestor"....
, the Chinese increased the number of trade missions that would dock at ports throughout the Indian Ocean, where Arab and Hindu influence was once predominant. The Chinese sailed regularly to Korea and Japan in the Far East, westwards towards India and Sri Lanka, and into the Persian Gulf
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...
, and the Red Sea
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
. The Chinese were keen to import goods such as rare woods, precious metals, gems, spices, and ivory, while exporting goods such as silk, ceramics, lacquer-ware, copper cash, dyes, and even books. In 1178, the Guangzhou customs officer Zhou Qufei wrote of an island far west in the Indian Ocean (possibly Madagascar
Madagascar
The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
), from where people with skin "as black as lacquer" and with frizzy hair were captured and purchased as slaves by Arab merchants. As an important maritime trader, China appeared also on geographical maps of the Islamic world. In 1154 the Moroccan
Moroccan people
The Moroccan people are a people that share a common Moroccan culture, ancestry and speak the Moroccan variant of the Arabic language or a Berber language as a mother tongue....
geographer
Geographer
A geographer is a scholar whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society.Although geographers are historically known as people who make maps, map making is actually the field of study of cartography, a subset of geography...
Al-Idrisi published his Geography, where he described the Chinese seagoing vessels as having aboard goods such as iron, swords, leather, silk, velvet, along with textiles from Aden
Aden
Aden is a seaport city in Yemen, located by the eastern approach to the Red Sea , some 170 kilometres east of Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000. Aden's ancient, natural harbour lies in the crater of an extinct volcano which now forms a peninsula, joined to the mainland by a...
(modern-day Yemen), the Indus River
Indus River
The Indus River is a major river which flows through Pakistan. It also has courses through China and India.Originating in the Tibetan plateau of western China in the vicinity of Lake Mansarovar in Tibet Autonomous Region, the river runs a course through the Ladakh district of Jammu and Kashmir and...
region, and Euphrates River region (modern-day Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
). He also commended the silk manufactured at Quanzhou as being unparalleled in the world for its quality, while the Chinese capital at Hangzhou was best known throughout the Islamic world for being a major producer of glass wares. By at least the 13th century, the Chinese were even familiar with the story of the ancient Lighthouse of Alexandria
Lighthouse of Alexandria
The Lighthouse of Alexandria, also known as the Pharos of Alexandria , was a tower built between 280 and 247 BC on the island of Pharos at Alexandria, Egypt...
since it is described at length by Zhao Rugua
Zhao Rugua
Zhao Rugua was a customs inspector at the city of Quanzhou during the late Song dynasty who wrote a two-volume book called Zhufan Zhi around 1225 CE...
, a Southern Song customs inspector of Quanzhou.
Defeat of Jin invasion, 1161
Emperor Hailingwang of Jin
Emperor Hailingwang of Jin was emperor of the Jin Dynasty, the Jurchen dynasty which ruled northern China. He reigned from January 9, 1150 to December 15, 1161....
, born as Wányán Liàng (完顏亮), moved the empire's capital from Huining Fu
Huining Fu
Huining Fu was a prefecture in the Shangjing region of Manchuria . It served as the first superior capital of the Jin Dynasty between 1122 to 1234 .- History :...
in northern Manchuria (south of present-day Harbin
Harbin
Harbin ; Manchu language: , Harbin; Russian: Харби́н Kharbin ), is the capital and largest city of Heilongjiang Province in Northeast China, lying on the southern bank of the Songhua River...
) to Zhongdu (now Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
). Four years later in 1157 he razed Beijing, including the nobles’ residences, and moved the Jin's southern capital from Beijing to Kaifeng. It was here at the former seat of the Song Dynasty that he began a large project of reconstruction (since the siege against it in 1127). For much of his reign there was peace between Jin and Song, while both states upheld an uninterrupted flow of commercial trade between each other. While amassing tribute from the Southern Song, the Jin Dynasty also imported large amounts of tea, rice, sugar, and books from the Southern Song. However, Hailingwang reopened the Jin Dynasty's armed conflict with the Song by the 1160s.
Emperor Wanyan Liang established a military campaign against the Southern Song in 1161, with 70,000 naval troops aboard 600 warships facing a smaller Song fleet of only 120 warships and 3,000 men. At the Battle of Tangdao
Battle of Tangdao
The naval Battle of Tangdao took place in 1161 between the Jurchen Jin and the Southern Song Dynasty of China on the East China Sea. It was an attempt by the Jin to invade and conquer the Southern Song Dynasty, yet resulted in failure and defeat for the Jurchens. The Jin Dynasty navy was set on...
and the Battle of Caishi
Battle of Caishi
The naval Battle of Caishi took place in 1161 and was the result of an attempt by forces of the Jurchen Jin to cross the Yangtze River, thus beginning an invasion of Southern Song China...
along the Yangtze River, Jin forces were defeated by the Southern Song navy. In these battles, the Jin navy was wiped out by the much smaller Song fleet because of their use of fast paddle-wheel crafts
Paddle steamer
A paddle steamer is a steamship or riverboat, powered by a steam engine, using paddle wheels to propel it through the water. In antiquity, Paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were wheelers driven by animals or humans...
and gunpowder bombs launched from trebuchet catapults (since explosive grenade
Grenade
A grenade is a small explosive device that is projected a safe distance away by its user. Soldiers called grenadiers specialize in the use of grenades. The term hand grenade refers any grenade designed to be hand thrown. Grenade Launchers are firearms designed to fire explosive projectile grenades...
s and bombs had been known in China since the 10th century). Meanwhile, two simultaneous rebellions of Jurchen nobles, led by soon-to-be crowned Jin Emperor Wányán Yōng (完顏雍) and Khitan
Khitan people
thumb|250px|Khitans [[Eagle hunting|using eagles to hunt]], painted during the Chinese [[Song Dynasty]].The Khitan people , or Khitai, Kitan, or Kidan, were a nomadic Mongolic people, originally located at Mongolia and Manchuria from the 4th century...
tribesman, erupted in Manchuria
Manchuria
Manchuria is a historical name given to a large geographic region in northeast Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria usually falls entirely within the People's Republic of China, or is sometimes divided between China and Russia. The region is commonly referred to as Northeast...
. This forced the reluctant court of the Jin Dynasty to withdraw its troops from southern China to quell these uprisings. In the end, Emperor Wányán Liàng failed in taking the Southern Song and was assassinated by his own generals in December 1161. The Khitan uprising was not suppressed until 1164, while the Treaty of Longxing (隆興和議) was signed in 1165 between Song and Jin, reestablishing the 1142 border line and ushering in four decades of peace between the two.
Mongols
Mongols ) are a Central-East Asian ethnic group that lives mainly in the countries of Mongolia, China, and Russia. In China, ethnic Mongols can be found mainly in the central north region of China such as Inner Mongolia...
from the north, and in 1211 the major campaign led by Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan , born Temujin and occasionally known by his temple name Taizu , was the founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death....
was launched. His army consisted of fifty thousand bowmen, while his three sons led armies of similar size. Patricia Ebrey writes that at this point the Mongol population could not have been greater than 1.5 million, yet they boosted their numbers by employing Khitans and Han Chinese "who felt no great loyalty to their Jurchen lords." After a Jurchen general murdered Emperor Weishaowang of Jin
Emperor Weishaowang of Jin
Emperor Weishaowang of Jin was the emperor of the Jin Dynasty whom ruled most of northern China in the 12th and 13th centuries. His name at birth was Wányán Yǒngjì Weishaowang was the seventh of ten emperors of the Jin Dynasty...
in 1213 and placed Emperor Xuanzong of Jin
Emperor Xuanzong of Jin
Emperor Xuanzong of Jin , Jin Xuanzong, was emperor of the Jin Dynasty which ruled most of northern China in the 12th and 13th centuries. His name at birth was Wányán Xún...
on the throne, a peace settlement was negotiated between Jin and the Mongol forces in 1214, as Genghis made the Jin Dynasty a vassal state of the Mongol Empire. However, when the Jin court moved from Beijing to Kaifeng, Genghis saw this move as a revolt, and moved upon the old Jin capital at Beijing in 1215, sacking and burning it. Although the now small Jin state attempted to defend against the Mongols and even fought battles with the Song in 1216 and 1223, the Jin were attacked by the Mongols again in 1229 with the ascension of Ögedei Khan
Ögedei Khan
Ögedei Khan, born Ögedei was the third son of Genghis Khan and second Great Khan of the Mongol Empire by succeeding his father...
. According to the account of 1232, written by the Jin commander Chizhan Hexi, the Jurchens led a valiant effort against the Mongols, whom they frigthened and demoralized in the siege of the capital by the use of 'thunder-crash-bombs' and fire lance
Fire lance
The fire lance or fire spear is one of the first gunpowder weapons in the world.- Description :The earliest fire lances were spear-like weapons combining a bamboo tube containing gunpowder and projectiles tied to a Chinese spear. Upon firing, the charge ejected a small projectile or poison dart...
flamethrower
Flamethrower
A flamethrower is a mechanical device designed to project a long controllable stream of fire.Some flamethrowers project a stream of ignited flammable liquid; some project a long gas flame. Most military flamethrowers use liquids, but commercial flamethrowers tend to use high-pressure propane and...
s. However, the capital at Kaifeng was captured by siege in 1233, and by 1234 the Jin Dynasty finally fell in defeat to the Mongols.
The Western Xia Dynasty met a similar fate, becoming an unreliable vassal to the Mongols by seeking to secure alliances with Jin and Song. Genghis Khan had died in 1227 during the 5 month siege of their capital city, and being held somewhat responsible for this, the last Xia ruler was hacked to death when he was persuaded to exit the gates of his city with a small entourage.
Mongol invasion and end of the Song Dynasty
Following the death of Gaozong and the emergence of the Mongols, the Song Dynasty formed a military alliance with the Mongols in the hope of finally defeating the Jin Dynasty. Several tens of thousands of carts full of grain were sent to the Mongol army during the siege. Following the destruction of the Jurchens in 1234, the Southern Song generals broke the alliance, proceeding to recapture the three historical capitals of KaifengKaifeng
Kaifeng , known previously by several names , is a prefecture-level city in east-central Henan province, Central China. Nearly 5 million people live in the metropolitan area...
, Luoyang
Luoyang
Luoyang is a prefecture-level city in western Henan province of Central China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyang to the south, Sanmenxia to the west, Jiyuan to the north, and Jiaozuo to the northeast.Situated on the central plain of...
and Chang'an
Chang'an
Chang'an is an ancient capital of more than ten dynasties in Chinese history, today known as Xi'an. Chang'an literally means "Perpetual Peace" in Classical Chinese. During the short-lived Xin Dynasty, the city was renamed "Constant Peace" ; yet after its fall in AD 23, the old name was restored...
. However the cities, ravaged by years of warfare, lacked economic capacity and yielded little defensibility. This breaking of alliance meant open warfare between the Mongols and the Song Chinese. Ögodei Khan's forces conquered fifty-four out of Sichuan
Sichuan
' , known formerly in the West by its postal map spellings of Szechwan or Szechuan is a province in Southwest China with its capital in Chengdu...
's fifty-eight total districts by 1236, while ordering the slaughter of over a million people that inhabited the city of Chengdu
Chengdu
Chengdu , formerly transliterated Chengtu, is the capital of Sichuan province in Southwest China. It holds sub-provincial administrative status...
, which was taken by the Mongols with ease.
Mongke's campaign
Möngke Khan
Möngke Khan , born Möngke, , was the fourth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire from July 1, 1251 – August 11, 1259. He was the first Great Khan from the Toluid line, and made significant reforms to improve the administration of the Empire during his reign...
, famed for his battles in Russia and Hungary in Eastern Europe
Mongol invasion of Europe
The resumption of the Mongol invasion of Europe, during which the Mongols attacked medieval Rus' principalities and the powers of Poland and Hungary, was marked by the Mongol invasion of Rus starting in 21 December 1237...
, and ushered in the final destruction of the ruling Ch'oe family of Korea
Mongol invasions of Korea
The Mongol invasions of Korea consisted of a series of campaigns by the Mongol Empire against Korea, then known as Goryeo, from 1231 to 1270...
in 1258. In 1252 Mongke commissioned his younger brother Kublai
Kublai Khan
Kublai Khan , born Kublai and also known by the temple name Shizu , was the fifth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire from 1260 to 1294 and the founder of the Yuan Dynasty in China...
to conquer the Kingdom of Dali
Kingdom of Dali
Dali or Great Li was a Bai kingdom centred in what is now Yunnan Province of China. Established by Duan Siping in 937, it was ruled by a succession of 22 kings until the year 1253, when it was conquered by an invasion of the Mongol Empire. The capital city was at Dali.- History :The Kingdom of...
in the southwest (modern Yunnan
Yunnan
Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...
province), which was a successful campaign from the summer of 1253 to early 1254. Mongke also sent a military campaign into northern Vietnam (which was a failure). Mongke sent his renowned general and brother Hulagu east to face Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
and Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, after he had sacked and razed medieval Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
to the ground in 1258 during the sack of Baghdad
Battle of Baghdad (1258)
The Siege of Baghdad, which occurred in 1258, was an invasion, siege and sacking of the city of Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate at the time and the modern-day capital of Iraq, by the Ilkhanate Mongol forces along with other allied troops under Hulagu Khan.The invasion left Baghdad in...
, bringing an end to the Abbasid
Abbasid
The Abbasid Caliphate or, more simply, the Abbasids , was the third of the Islamic caliphates. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphate from all but the al-Andalus region....
Caliphate
Caliphate
The term caliphate, "dominion of a caliph " , refers to the first system of government established in Islam and represented the political unity of the Muslim Ummah...
and the Islamic Golden Age
Islamic Golden Age
During the Islamic Golden Age philosophers, scientists and engineers of the Islamic world contributed enormously to technology and culture, both by preserving earlier traditions and by adding their own inventions and innovations...
. Meanwhile, Mongke infiltrated Song territory further, until he died while battling the Song Chinese at Fishing Town
Fishing town
Fishing Town or Fishing City , is one of the three great ancient battlefields of China. It is famous for its resistance to the Mongol armies in the latter half of the Song Dynasty...
, Chongqing
Chongqing
Chongqing is a major city in Southwest China and one of the five national central cities of China. Administratively, it is one of the PRC's four direct-controlled municipalities , and the only such municipality in inland China.The municipality was created on 14 March 1997, succeeding the...
on August 11, 1259. There are several different claims as to how he died; the causes of death include either an arrow wound from a Chinese archer during the siege, dysentery
Dysentery
Dysentery is an inflammatory disorder of the intestine, especially of the colon, that results in severe diarrhea containing mucus and/or blood in the faeces with fever and abdominal pain. If left untreated, dysentery can be fatal.There are differences between dysentery and normal bloody diarrhoea...
, or cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
epidemic. Whatever the cause, his death halted the invasion of the Southern Song, and sparked a succession crisis that would ultimately favor Kublai Khan as the new Khaghan of the Mongols. Mongke's death in battle also led to the recall of the main Mongol armies led by Hulagu campaigning in the Middle East. Hulagu had to travel back to Mongolia in order to partake in the traditional tribal meeting of the khuriltai to appoint a new successor of the Mongol Khanate. In Hulagu's absence, the emboldened Mamluks of Egypt were ready to face the Mongols. Mongol forces under Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
Kitbuqa
Kitbuqa
Kitbuqa Noyan was a Nestorian Christian and a member of the Naiman Turks, a group that was subservient to the Mongol Empire. He was a lieutenant and confidant of the Mongol Ilkhan Hulagu, assisting him in his conquests in the Middle East...
's command were defeated in a decisive blow at Ain Jalut
Battle of Ain Jalut
The Battle of Ain Jalut took place on 3 September 1260 between Mamluks and the Mongols in eastern Galilee, in the Jezreel Valley, not far from Ein Harod....
. This marked the extent of Mongol conquests west, but in the east, the Song Dynasty had to be dealt with.
A fluctuating border
Yangtze River
The Yangtze, Yangzi or Cháng Jiāng is the longest river in Asia, and the third-longest in the world. It flows for from the glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau in Qinghai eastward across southwest, central and eastern China before emptying into the East China Sea at Shanghai. It is also one of the...
for the next two months into the autumn of 1259. Kublai made a daring advance across the river during a storm, and assaulted the Southern Song troops on the other side. Both sides suffered considerable casualties, but Kublai's troops were victorious and gained a foothold south of the Yangzi. Kublai made preparations to take the heavily fortified city of Ezhou
Ezhou
-Geography and climate:Ezhou is located in southeastern Hubei province, on the southern bank of the Yangtze River east of Wuchang , and across the river from the city of Huanggang, to which it is connected by the Ehuang Bridge...
. Meanwhile, the Song Dynasty chancellor Jia Sidao
Jia Sidao
Jia Sidao was a chancellor during the late Song Dynasty of China. He dominated the Song court from 1260 to 1273, after rising to the rank of chancellor due to his sister being a concubine of the Emperor Lizong...
贾似道 dispatched General Lü Wende to lead the reinforcements in the defense of Ezhou, and on October 5 Lü slipped past Kublai's ill-prepared forces and entered the city. Jia Sidao then sent his general and emissary Song Jing to negotiate a tributary settlement with Kublai. He offered Kublai annual tribute of silver like in the earlier treaty with the Khitans, in return for the territories south of the Yangzi that had been taken by the Mongols. Kublai rejected the proposal since he was already in a favorable strategic position on the other side of the Yangzi. However, Kublai had to suspend the war and travel north with the majority of his forces due to his rival brother Ariq Böke
Ariq Boke
Ariq Böke , the components of his name also spelled Arigh, Arik, Bukha, Buka , was the youngest son of Tolui , a son of Genghis Khan. After the death of his brother the Great Khan Mongke, Ariq Boke briefly took power while his brothers Kublai and Hulagu were absent...
leading a sudden movement of troops towards Kublai's home base of Xanadu
Xanadu
-Description of Xanadu by Toghon Temur :The lament of Toghon Temur Khan , concerning the loss of Daidu and Heibun Shanduu in 1368, is recorded in many Mongolian historical chronicles...
.
Kublai's absence from the war front was seen by Chancellor Jia Sidao as an opportune moment, so he ordered to resume armed conflict. The Song army routed the small armed detachment that Kublai had stationed south of the Yangzi, and the Song regained its lost territory. With his ally Hulagu busy fighting the Golden Horde
Golden Horde
The Golden Horde was a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate that formed the north-western sector of the Mongol Empire...
and his own forces needed in the north against the rival Khagan claimant Ariq Böke, Kublai was unable to focus on hostilities in the south. On May 21, 1260, Kublai sent his envoy Hao Jing and two other advisors to negotiate with the Southern Song. Upon their arrival and attempts to solve the conflict through diplomatic means, Jia Sidao ordered Kublai's embassy to be detained. Although Kublai would not forget this slight of imprisoning his ambassadors, he nonetheless had to focus on more pressing affairs with the threat of his brother and rival Khan. From 1260 to 1262 the Song forces raided Kublai's southern border which forced Kublai to retaliate with some minor incursions until 1264, when his brother finally surrendered and ended the civil war. In 1265 the first major battle in five years erupted in Sichuan province, where Kublai gained a preliminary victory and considerable war booty of 146 Song naval ships.
Growing discontent
There was also mounting political opposition against Chancellor Jia Sidao. Jia had purged several dissident officials who were opposed to his reforms aimed at limiting official corruption and personal profiteering. When he replaced some of these officials with his own cronies, however, political conditions were ripe for a schism at court and within the gentry class that would be favorable to a strong, unified force led by Kublai. Kublai used various ploys and gestures in order to entice defectors from the Southern Song to his side. Kublai Khan established Dadu
Khanbaliq
Khanbaliq or Dadu refers to a city which is now Beijing, the current capital of the People's Republic of China...
(Beijing) as his new capital in 1264, catering to the likes of the Chinese with his advisor Liu Bingzhong
Liu Bingzhong
Liu Bingzhong , or Liu Kan was a Yuan Dynasty court adviser and architect. He was born in Ruizhou , during the Jin Dynasty. In 1233, he entered the Jin's bureaucracy. He still was an officer after the Mongol-Yuan Dynasty replaced the Jin, but later he became a monk...
and the naming of his dynasty with the Chinese word for "primal" ("Yuan"). He made it a policy to grant land, clothing, and oxen to Song Dynasty Chinese who defected to his side. Kublai Khan chose the moral high ground of releasing Song captives and prisoners while Jia Sidao refused to release Kublai's emissary Hao Jing. In 1261 Kublai personally released seventy-five Song merchants captured at the border; in 1263 he released fifty-seven merchants; in 1269 he released forty-five merchants. In 1264 he publicly reprimanded his own officers for executing two Song generals without trial or investigation. With these acts his reputation and legitimacy in the eyes of the Chinese were greatly enhanced.
Battle of Xiangyang
The siege of the city Xiangyang was a long, drawn out conflictBattle of Xiangyang
The Battle of Xiangyang also known as the Battle of Xiangfan was a six-year battle between invading Yuan Dynasty armies founded by the Mongols and Southern Song forces between AD 1267 and 1273. After the battle, the victorious Yuan forces pushed farther into the Song heartland...
from 1268 to 1273. Xiangyang and the adjacent town of Fancheng
Fancheng
Fancheng District is a district of Xiangfan, Hubei, China.-History:Fancheng was an ancient Chinese city in Hubei, situated on the northern side of the Han River, opposite Xiangyang on the southern side of the river...
were located on the opposite bank of the Han River
Han River (Hanshui)
The Han River is a left tributary of the Yangtze River with a length of 1532 km. Historically it was referred to as Hànshuǐ and the name is still occasionally used today....
and were the last fortified obstacles in Kublai's way towards the rich Yangzi River basin. Kublai made an attempt to starve the city of its supply lines by gaining naval supremacy along the Han River in a gigantic blockade. It was the Song defector Liu Zheng who was the main proponent in advising Kublai Khan to expand the Yuan Dynasty's naval strength, which was a great factor in their success. On several occasions—August 1269, March 1270, August 1271, and September 1272—the Southern Song attempted to break the Yuan blockade with its own navy, yet each attempt was a costly failure of thousands of men and hundreds of ships. An international force — composed of Chinese, Jurchens, Koreans
Goryeo
The Goryeo Dynasty or Koryŏ was a Korean dynasty established in 918 by Emperor Taejo. Korea gets its name from this kingdom which came to be pronounced Korea. It united the Later Three Kingdoms in 936 and ruled most of the Korean peninsula until it was removed by the Joseon dynasty in 1392...
, Mongols, Uyghur Turks
Uyghur people
The Uyghur are a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia. Today, Uyghurs live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China...
, and Middle Eastern Muslims— contributed to Kublai's siege effort in crafting ships and artillery. After the siege, in the summer of 1273, Kublai appointed the Chinese general Shi Tianze and Turkic general Bayan
Bayan of the Baarin
Bayan of the Baarin , also known as "Bayan chingsang" or, to Marco Polo, as "Bayan Hundred Eyes" , was a Mongol general...
as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. However, Shi Tianze died in 1275; Bayan was then granted a force of 200,000 (composed mostly of Han Chinese) to assault Song.
Final resistance
Fujian
' , formerly romanised as Fukien or Huguing or Foukien, is a province on the southeast coast of mainland China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, and Guangdong to the south. Taiwan lies to the east, across the Taiwan Strait...
in exile from the court; while en route to Fujian, he was killed by the same commander that was appointed to accompany him. After his death many of his supporters and opposing ministers submitted to Bayan. By 1276 the Yuan army had conquered nearly all of the Southern Song's territory, including the capital at Hangzhou.
Meanwhile the rebel remnants of the Song court fled to Fuzhou
Fuzhou
Fuzhou is the capital and one of the largest cities in Fujian Province, People's Republic of China. Along with the many counties of Ningde, those of Fuzhou are considered to constitute the Mindong linguistic and cultural area....
. Emperor Gong
Emperor Gong of Song
Emperor Gong of Song Emperor Gong of Song Emperor Gong of Song (1271- unknown (possibly 1323), born Zhào Xiǎn (趙顯), was the 7th Emperor of the Chinese Southern Song Dynasty. He reigned from 1274 until his abdication in 1276 CE when he was succeeded by his elder brother, Emperor Duanzong of Song....
was left behind as the empress dowager submitted to Bayan, horrified by reports of the total slaughter of Changzhou
Changzhou
Changzhou is a prefecture-level city in southern Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It was previously known as Yanling, Lanling, Jinling, and Wujin. Located on the southern bank of the Yangtze River, Changzhou borders the provincial capital of Nanjing to the west, Zhenjiang to the...
. Before the capital was taken, Empress Dowager Xie (1208–1282) made attempts to negotiate with Bayan, promising annual tribute to the Yuan Dynasty, but he rejected these proposals. After her attempts at diplomacy had failed, she handed over the Song Dynasty's imperial seal to Bayan, "an unambiguous symbol of capitulation." With the submission of Emperor Gong, Bayan ordered that the Song imperial family should be respected, and forbade the pillaging of their imperial tombs or treasuries. Kublai granted the deposed emperor the title "Duke of Ying", but he was eventually exiled to Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
where he took up a monastic life in 1296.
Any hope of resistance was centered on two young princes, Emperor Gong's brothers. The older boy, Zhao Shi
Emperor Duanzong of Song
Emperor Duānzōng was the eighth and penultimate emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty of China who reigned from 1276 to 1278 and died at the early age of ten. He was also known as the "Nation Establishing Duke " ....
, who was nine years old, was declared emperor on June 14, 1276, in Fuzhou. The court sought refuge in Quanzhou, seeking an alliance with the Superintendent of Maritime Shipping, the Muslim Pu Shougeng. However, he secretly formed an alliance with Kublai, so the Song court was forced to flee in 1277. The court then sought refuge in Silvermine Bay (Mui Wo
Mui Wo
Mui Wo is a rural town on the eastern coast of Lantau Island in Hong Kong. The main beach in Mui Wo is known as Silver Mine Bay .-History:...
) on Lantau Island
Lantau Island
Lantau Island , based on the old local name of Lantau Peak , is the largest island in Hong Kong, located at the mouth of the Pearl River. Administratively, most of Lantau Island is part of the Islands District of Hong Kong...
(in later eras known as Kowloon City
Kowloon City
Kowloon City is an area in Kowloon, Hong Kong. It is named after the Kowloon Walled City, and is administratively part of Kowloon City District....
, Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
). The older brother became ill and died on May 8, 1278 at age ten, and was succeeded by his younger brother who became Emperor Huaizong of Song
Emperor Bing of Song
Emperor Bing of Song was the last emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty of China. He was also known as Lord Perpetual-Nation ....
, aged seven. The Sung Wong Toi
Sung Wong Toi
Sung Wong Toi is an important historic relic in Kowloon, Hong Kong. While its remaining portion is currently located in the Sung Wong Toi Garden in Ma Tau Wai, it was originally a 45 m tall boulder standing on the top of Sacred Hill in Ma Tau Chung above Kowloon Bay.-Literally Meaning:The name...
monument in Kowloon commemorates his enthronement. On March 19, 1279 the Song army was defeated in its last battle, the Battle of Yamen
Battle of Yamen
The naval Battle of Yamen took place on 19 March 1279 and is considered to be the last stand of the Song Dynasty against the invading Mongol-controlled Yuan Dynasty...
, fought against the Yuan army led by the Chinese general Zhang Hongfan
Zhang Hongfan
Zhang Hongfan was a Han Chinese general of the Mongol Empire in China. As commander of the Mongol army and navy, he annihilated the Southern Song by crushing the last Song resistance at the Battle of Yamen in 1279, where he is said to have captured 8000 enemy vessels...
in the Pearl River Delta
Pearl River Delta
The Pearl River Delta , Zhujiang Delta or Zhusanjiao in Guangdong province, People's Republic of China is the low-lying area surrounding the Pearl River estuary where the Pearl River flows into the South China Sea...
. Song Prime Minister Lu Xiufu
Lu Xiufu
Lù Xiùfū , courtesy title Junshi , was a statesman and military commander during the final years of the Chinese Song Dynasty...
is said to have taken the boy emperor in his arms and jumped from his sinking ship into the sea, drowning both of them.
With the death of the last remaining emperor, Song China was eliminated, while Kublai Khan established the realm of the Yuan Dynasty
Yuan Dynasty
The Yuan Dynasty , or Great Yuan Empire was a ruling dynasty founded by the Mongol leader Kublai Khan, who ruled most of present-day China, all of modern Mongolia and its surrounding areas, lasting officially from 1271 to 1368. It is considered both as a division of the Mongol Empire and as an...
over China proper
China proper
China proper or Eighteen Provinces was a term used by Western writers on the Qing Dynasty to express a distinction between the core and frontier regions of China. There is no fixed extent for China proper, as many administrative, cultural, and linguistic shifts have occurred in Chinese history...
, Mongolia, Manchuria, Tibet, and Korea. For nearly a century to follow, the Chinese would live under a dynasty established by Mongols. However, a native Han Chinese
Han Chinese
Han Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and are the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92% of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98% of the population of the Republic of China , 78% of the population of Singapore, and about 20% of the...
dynasty would be established once more with the Ming Dynasty
Ming Dynasty
The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...
in 1368.
Historical literature
Zizhi Tongjian
The Zizhi Tongjian was a pioneering reference work in Chinese historiography, published in 1084, under the form of a chronicles. In 1065 CE, Emperor Yingzong of Song ordered the great historian Sima Guang to lead with other scholars such as his chief assistants Liu Shu, Liu Ban and Fan Zuyu, the...
(Chinese: 資治通鑒/资治通鉴; Wade-Giles: Tzu-chih t'ung-chien; literally "Comprehensive Mirror for/to Aid in Government") was an enormous work of Chinese historiography
Chinese historiography
Chinese historiography refers to the study of methods and assumptions made in studying Chinese history.-History of Chinese Historians:Record of Chinese history dated back to the Shang Dynasty. The Classic of History, one of the Five Classics of Chinese classic texts is one of the earliest...
, a written approach to a universal history
Universal history
Universal history is basic to the Western tradition of historiography, especially the Abrahamic wellspring of that tradition. Simply stated, universal history is the presentation of the history of humankind as a whole, as a coherent unit.-Ancient authors:...
of China, compiled in the 11th century. The work was first ordered to be compiled by Emperor Yingzong of Song
Emperor Yingzong of Song
Emperor Yingzong was the fifth emperor of the Song Dynasty of China. His personal name was originally Zhao Zongshi but he later changed it to Zhao Shu. He reigned from 1063 to 1067...
in 1065, the team of scholars headed by Sima Guang
Sima Guang
Sīmǎ Guāng was a Chinese historian, scholar, and high chancellor of the Song Dynasty, jinshi 1038.-Life, profession, and works:...
, who presented the completed work to Emperor Shenzong of Song
Emperor Shenzong of Song
Emperor Shenzong of Song was the sixth emperor of the Chinese Song Dynasty. His personal name was Zhao Xu...
in 1084. Its total length was 294 volumes containing roughly 3 million Chinese character
Chinese character
Chinese characters are logograms used in the writing of Chinese and Japanese , less frequently Korean , formerly Vietnamese , or other languages...
s. The Zizhi Tongjian covers the people, places, and events of Chinese history from the beginning of the Warring States in 403 BC until the beginning of the Song Dynasty in 959. Its size, brevity, and scope has often been compared to the groundbreaking work of Chinese historiography compiled by the ancient historian Sima Qian
Sima Qian
Sima Qian was a Prefect of the Grand Scribes of the Han Dynasty. He is regarded as the father of Chinese historiography for his highly praised work, Records of the Grand Historian , a "Jizhuanti"-style general history of China, covering more than two thousand years from the Yellow Emperor to...
(145 BC–90 BC), known as the Shiji. This historical work was later compiled and condensed into fifty nine different books by the Neo-Confucian philosopher Zhu Xi
Zhu Xi
Zhū Xī or Chu Hsi was a Song Dynasty Confucian scholar who became the leading figure of the School of Principle and the most influential rationalist Neo-Confucian in China...
in 1189, yet his pupils had to complete the work shortly after his death in 1200. During the Manchu
Manchu
The Manchu people or Man are an ethnic minority of China who originated in Manchuria . During their rise in the 17th century, with the help of the Ming dynasty rebels , they came to power in China and founded the Qing Dynasty, which ruled China until the Xinhai Revolution of 1911, which...
Qing Dynasty
Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
, the book was reprinted in 1708, while the European Jesuit Father Joseph Anne Maria de Moyriac de Mailla (1679–1748) translated it shortly after in 1737. It was later edited and published by the Jesuit Abbé, Jean Baptiste Gabriel Alexandre Grosier (1743–1823), in part with Le Roux des Hauterays, where a thirteenth volume and a title page were added. It was also translated and published by the Jesuit astronomer Antoine Gaubil
Antoine Gaubil
Antoine Gaubil was French Jesuit missionary to China.-Life:He entered the Society of Jesus, 13 September 1704, was sent to China, where he arrived 26 June 1722. He then lived in Beijing for the rest of his life...
in 1759, whose pupils founded a Russian
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
school of sinology
Sinology
Sinology in general use is the study of China and things related to China, but, especially in the American academic context, refers more strictly to the study of classical language and literature, and the philological approach...
.
Another historical source was the enormous encyclopedia Prime Tortoise of the Record Bureau
Prime Tortoise of the Record Bureau
The Prime Tortoise of the Record Bureau was the largest encyclopedia compiled during the Chinese Song Dynasty . It was the last of the Four Great Books of Song, the previous three encyclopedias published in the 10th century....
published by 1013, one of the Four Great Books of Song
Four Great Books of Song
The Four Great Books of Song was compiled by Li Fang and others during the Song Dynasty . The term was coined after the last book was finished during the 11th century...
. Divided into 1000 volumes of 9.4 million written Chinese characters, this book provided important information on political essays of the period, extensive autobiographies on rulers and various subjects, as well as a multitude of different memorial
Memorial
A memorial is an object which serves as a focus for memory of something, usually a person or an event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or art objects such as sculptures, statues or fountains, and even entire parks....
s and decrees brought forth to the imperial court. However, the official history of the Song Dynasty was the Song Shi, compiled in 1345 during the Yuan Dynasty. The recorded history of the Jurchen Jin Dynasty, the Jin Shi, was compiled in the same year. This historical book is one of the classic Twenty-Four Histories
Twenty-Four Histories
The Twenty-Four Histories is a collection of Chinese historical books covering a period from 3000 BC to the Ming Dynasty in the 17th century. The whole set contains 3213 volumes and about 40 million words...
of China.
See also
- Chinese literatureChinese literatureChinese literature extends thousands of years, from the earliest recorded dynastic court archives to the mature fictional novels that arose during the Ming Dynasty to entertain the masses of literate Chinese...
- History of ChinaHistory of ChinaChinese civilization originated in various regional centers along both the Yellow River and the Yangtze River valleys in the Neolithic era, but the Yellow River is said to be the Cradle of Chinese Civilization. With thousands of years of continuous history, China is one of the world's oldest...
- Military history of China (pre-1911)
- Naval history of ChinaNaval history of ChinaThe naval history of China dates back thousands of years, with archives existing since the late Spring and Autumn Period about the ancient navy of China and the various ship types used in war. China was leading maritime power in the years 1405-1433, when Chinese shipbuilders began to build massive...
- Wen TianxiangWen TianxiangWen Tianxiang , Duke of Xinguo, was a scholar-general in the last years of the Southern Song Dynasty. For his resistance to Kublai Khan's invasion of the Song, and for his refusal to yield to the Yuan Dynasty despite being captured and tortured, he is a popular symbol of patriotism and...
- Yang HuiYang HuiYang Hui , courtesy name Qianguang , was a Chinese mathematician from Qiantang , Zhejiang province during the late Song Dynasty . Yang worked on magic squares, magic circles and the binomial theorem, and is best known for his contribution of presenting 'Yang Hui's Triangle'...
- Zhou Tong (archer)